A New Kind of Life
by fairytaleprincess03
Summary: Stephanie and Joe broke up. Stephanie takes a trip to Europe and doesn't return for 3 years. When she does, she's not what people expected. Something has changed inside her and Ranger wants to know what it was.
1. Prologue

AN: I don't own Stephanie Plum in any way shape or form.

* * *

Prologue

Stephanie smiled as she walked to the airport. She faced Ranger and hugged him. "Thanks for bringing me."

"Babe." When she pulled back she could see concern flicker briefly in his eyes.

"Don't worry," She laughed. "I'm fine. Things ended amicably." And they had. Things between her and Joe had run its course. They had drifted too far apart and couldn't seem to find a way back to each other. More and more, she had found herself turning to Ranger when things were getting tough and she needed to talk to someone.

They had split two days ago. At first she had been upset, but the Lula gave her the suggestion of taking a trip to Europe for a few weeks. Ranger had been set to go with her, but she had managed to talk him out of it, with the promise he would hear from her every day.

"Be careful." He said, kissed her, then left.

"That's the plan." She murmured as she turned to face the airport. She was going to enjoy her time off.

"Where's Stephanie?" Lula asked one morning. "She's supposed to be back now! If she's not she better have married some hot Europe man."

"I haven't heard from her."

The doors opened and Ranger strolled in. Both women went breathless for a moment. Lula spoke first. "Rangeman! Where's Steph?"

"Still in Europe." He answered vaguely, not giving away the concern that was eating at him.

Vinnie poked his head out of the office. "I just talked to Grandma Mazur. She said Stephanie called this morning and said she's not coming back soon." The look in Ranger's eyes made him duck back into the office. No way was he going to deal with him looking like that.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

_3 Years Later…._

"Connie! You see that sweet ride?" Lula shouted.

"No need to shout." Connie retorted as she came over to look. She whistled low as she saw the silver Porsche parked in front of the bonds office.

"I wonder who it belongs to."

"Me too." Connie replied. "And I hope he's single."

"Hey! I saw it first. I get dibs!"

"Doesn't look like either of us get dibs. It's a woman coming out of the car."

"Say doesn't she look like—"

"Stephanie."

Both women shuffled away from the window. Connie was behind her desk when Stephanie opened the door and let herself in. They could feel their jaws dropping as they took in their friend's appearance. Stephanie's hair was longer, kept in a tight ponytail. She was thinner than she had been when they last saw her. Her arms gave away the toned shape she had put herself into. Everything about her oozed sexy and slightly feral at the same time.

"Damn girl!" Lula exclaimed. "You look like sex!"

Stephanie's lips curled up into a small smile. "Hi, Lula."

"Don't 'hi, Lula' me! Where you been?" She had her hands on her hips staring up at Stephanie. "If you got married to some rich man, I better know!"

She laughed. "No. No marriage for me."

"How was Europe?" Connie asked looking over at the wall. Stephanie had regularly sent postcards. They didn't tell any of them much, other than she was thinking of them.

"It was good." She nodded toward Vinnie's office. "Is he in?"

"Looking to get back into bounty hunting?" Connie smiled.

"On the side." Stephanie walked over to the office and knocked. Vinnie opened the door. The doughnut he had been eating hung out of his mouth as he stared at her. "Vinnie. Need any help?"

"You ran off. Where the hell have you been?" Vinnie demanded around a mouthful of doughnut.

"Europe." She leaned against the doorframe. "I'd like to do some bounty hunting again. I hope I don't have to blackmail you _this _time."

"Strapped for money, are you?"

"Do I look strapped for money?" Stephanie asked coolly.

Vinnie looked her up and down. No, she didn't, he decided. She looked like she was well off in money and taking damned good care of herself. "So, what do you want? If you don't need the money, why would you want to come back?"

"I'm bored."

"You're bored." Vinnie repeated, then laughed. "Yeah sure. Why not. Ranger never blows anything up. It'll be good to hear the chaos you cause."

Stephanie gave a small smile. "I'm sure it'll be just as fun hearing Joyce make animal sounds for you."

Connie muffled her laughter in a cough. Lula didn't bother with discretion and laughed loudly. Their laughs stopped cold when the door opened. The hairs on Stephanie's neck rose. Only one person did that to her. He was an entire room away from her but she could feel him like he was standing next to her.

"Here, Steph." Connie said trying to keep her eyes off the gorgeous man moving through the office. "If you're ready now, you can take this one." She handed a file over to Stephanie.

She took the file, smiled her thanks and began walking out of the office. As she and Ranger passed one another, their eyes locked for a brief moment. Her breath caught slightly, but none noticed. Not now. Then she continued walking until she was safely out of the office. His own vehicle was parked behind hers. Black SUV. Stephanie smiled. Some things never changed.

Some things did.

...

Stephanie's first order of business had been to stop at her parents' house. They had been surprised and happy to see her home. She had called weekly to talk to them. Most of the conversations had been to reassure them that she was fine and that she would eventually come home, but the time had never seemed right. Until a couple weeks ago. Everything had changed.

So she bought a house outside of Trenton. She also owned a very lucrative business in Trenton, but since it ran efficiently without her overlooking every detail, her time was mostly free. After the first week of having little to do, she had become restless and needed something to occupy herself. Going to Vinnie had seemed like a good idea.

Her mother had made the sign of the cross when she heard Stephanie's plan and Grandma Mazur had graciously offered to be backup whenever she needed it. The reassurance Stephanie had provided for her mother did little, but she knew in time, her mother would see the change her daughter had gone through.

There were moments, like now, she thought driving through Trenton, when she could hardly believe the change she had done. What happened while she was visiting England had been the turning point for her. She had decided that fateful day she would no longer be the chaotic bumbler she had been. She would be self sufficient. She would be a fighter.

And that was what she had done. A quick glance in her rearview mirror showed her a black SUV that was following her. Her lips quirked upward. Of course he was following her. She had stopped calling him after that day and had found a way to make it extremely difficult for him to track her.

Picking her phone up, she dialed his number. It was one of the few she had kept when she emptied out her numbers.

"Yo."

"Following me already, Ranger?"

"Babe."

"I really wouldn't start." Stephanie said.

"Challenging me already?"

She laughed softly. "If that's what you want, then tag. You're it."

Hanging up, she shifted gears and sped off. Shifting through traffic, she saw Ranger keeping up with her well enough. A grin lit up her face. One thing she had learned to thrive on was evasiveness. There was a thrill to keeping people guessing, just like there was a thrill to losing people who were attempting to follow her. Ranger was good, she knew that, but she was going to lose him. He just didn't know that yet.

A light turned yellow and at the last possible second, she turned right quickly, knowing he would be stuck at the light. Not that it would deter him. A couple minutes later, she could see him turn down the road. She had moved to take a left. After several minutes, Stephanie was certain she had lost him. She wanted to laugh until she caught sight of his SUV on another street, driving parallel to her.

"Son of a…" Her voice drifted off as her mind kicked into high gear.

The two of them drove in a maze around each other, one in pursuit and one in escape. Ranger had always prided himself on being able to track Stephanie and keep up with her, but at the moment, he was losing her. He didn't know where she had learned some of the driving techniques she was using to get rid of him, but he wasn't sure he liked it.

But when he failed to see her silver Porsche anywhere he muttered, "Fuck." Turning back he headed to RangeMan to do some research and find out what he could about Stephanie's 3 year hiatus from Trenton.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The FTA Stephanie looked at was going to be easy. At least, last time she had had to go catch him it had been. Frankie Myles was known for skipping out on his court dates. She had been sent to catch him at least three times before. She wondered who had gone to got him the numerous occasions since she'd left.

She had switched cars when she arrived home. Knowing Ranger would do what he could to find something on her, she knew switching would be easiest. And it would keep him on his toes, which brought a smile of satisfaction to her face. So for the moment, she was sitting in a black Saturn, waiting in traffic, edging toward Frankie Myles's house.

A tap on her window made her glance toward her passenger door. Lula was waving at her. She rolled down the window. "Where's the Porsche?"

"Didn't want to risk the urge to rack up speeding tickets." Stephanie smiled. "I'm going for my FTA, care to join?"

"Hell yeah!" Lula popped into the car. "And we'll need lunch of course. It doesn't do us any good if we haven't got energy for it."

Stephanie laughed. "Yeah, we'll do lunch too. First, let's get ole' Frankie."

"He's been getting violent in his old age!" Lula said. "I tried getting him, but that bastard knocked me on my ass so hard I couldn't breathe for a week! Connie's been having to give him to Ranger!"

"Well, let's see if we can sweet talk him into playing nice." Stephanie said as they finally moved through traffic.

…..

Ranger walked into the office hours later to hear Lula telling Connie, "You should have seen her! She was fucking amazing!"

"It's strange to hear that about Steph." Connie admitted. Neither had noticed him walking in.

"Don't I know it!" Lula was waving her hands. "Frankie Myles never saw her coming! He barely recognized her! Whatever she did in Europe paid off! She had him cuffed in less than a minute! It was like she turned Karate Kid on his ass."

Vinnie stuck his head out of the door. "I don't believe you."

"I'm telling you it's the truth!" Lula pointed a finger at him. "She's bad ass! I bet she could take on Ranger himself!"

Connie coughed as she spotted Ranger. Vinnie looked at him and retreated to his office, knowing Ranger would be in any moment to find out what he needed.

Lula looked at Ranger. He strode forward, pausing at the desk where the women sat. "Did she mention where she was staying?"

She shrugged. "Nope. We stopped at McDonalds and had lunch then she brought me back here. Oh, and get this! She didn't have a burger! She ate a salad! Then said something about running it off! I tell you I don't recognize her anymore!"

Ranger left them talking as he walked into Vinnie's office. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah." Vinnie motioned to a folder. "He's FTA and I know none of the girls can bring him in. I need you to do it."

He glanced at it. "Later."

"What do you mean later?" Vinnie yelled after him as Ranger walked out of the office. Connie and Lula hurried to make themselves look busy.

….

Stephanie drove into the garage and parked. Aside from the FTA her day had been full. Meetings and such took the rest of her day, exhausting her. She'd had a later dinner with some associates, made her phone calls then drove the long way back home. She wouldn't take any chances on having someone follow her.

Leaving the garage, she stopped on the driveway to observe her house once more. It was more mansion than anything. Several rooms, many of which had been renovated to suit different purposes. It held several bedrooms as well. It was also near a river which gave her something to run along in the mornings. The detached garage was wonderful for all her little toys too.

Silently walking into the house she made her way to her bedroom. It had floor to ceiling windows on one wall, with her bed up against them. She liked being able to lay back and look at the moon peaking through the trees at night. The king sized bed was simply a mattress with a comfortable bed spread. She didn't opt for a headboard because she had a couple memories of finding herself cuffed to headboards.

It wasn't an experience she planned on reviving. With a deep sigh she got ready for bed in a tank top and shorts and crawled in. The next morning she was off and was planning to sleep late. Which meant until seven thirty these days.

….

Her bedroom door opened. She woke to the movement. Keeping her breathing slow and steady she waited until the intruder was closer. Her eyes stayed closed. When they bent over her she moved.

They tumbled around in the moonlight across the bed, both trying to gain the advantage of the other. Stephanie finally pinned the person under her.

"I didn't think it would take you this long, Ranger." She held his hands over his head. They both knew he could switch their positions if necessary. From the feel of him under her, he didn't feel it was necessary.

"You didn't have to wrestle me to get on top, Babe." He smiled.

She scowled at him. "What do you want, besides the obvious." She wiggled on top of him, enjoying the feel and the look of intensity that came to his face. His hand broke free of hers and gripped her waist.

"We need to talk."

"So talk, man of few words."

"It's been three years, babe."

"Yep."

"You promised to call every day."

"Yep."

"You broke that promise."

"Yep."

"Damn it, Stephanie!" He growled and reversed their positions. He leaned his head close to hers. "What happened?"

"Something you weren't there to stop." She snapped, beginning to struggle.

Ranger sat back and watched her get up and put distance between them. She didn't move off the bed, he noted, but put a few feet between them nonetheless. Wrapping her arms around her legs she sighed. "If you were so worried, why weren't you over in Europe looking for me?"

"I was." He snapped. "For whatever reason I couldn't find you. You think I liked knowing something happened and I had no way to help you?"

"But someone contacted you." She said. "I know that much."

"Yeah," Ranger nodded. "Yeah. Old John Tresdale contacted me."

"And you stopped looking."

"Tresdale is a man of mystery, more than myself." Ranger replied. "But he's trustworthy, so when he let me know you were alive and okay, I backed off."

"Why?"

"Because I knew he wouldn't hurt you, especially when he found out you were associated with me. I don't know what happened, but he said you were healing and that you'd come back."

Stephanie looked at him. Her heart hurt, knowing she caused him so much worry, but telling him what happened would be opening a door she wasn't willing to open. "I'm sorry, Ranger, but I won't tell you what happened."

"Babe."

"Don't." She shook her head. "Please, just don't."

He stood up to leave when the overhead lights flooded on, blinding both of them. A man walked into the room. "Sugar Plum, someone broke the system…" He broke off when he saw Ranger. Immediately his hand went to his waist.

Stephanie laughed at the look on Ranger's face. "RJ, don't. He's safe."

"Who is this?" Ranger asked her.

"One of my merry men." She replied.


	4. Chapter 3

**AN:** Sorry, folks! I forgot to have a disclaimer on a couple of the chapters. I dont own Stephanie or the delicious Ranger or his merry men. I do own Stephanie's merry men though! Hope y'all enjoy it! Be patient with him. Still working on fleshing a couple things out in my head. Hopefully a good night's sleep will flesh it all out! :-) Thanks to those who have already reviewed!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Stephanie walked down into the basement that had been converted into a gym. The encounter last night with Ranger had given her a lot to think about. It was hardly surprising to know that he had gone to Europe in an effort to find her. In fact, she had been surprised that she hadn't seen him three years ago. Part of her had been hurt by the lack of Ranger, but a bigger part had been relieved. She didn't want him to see her in the state she had been in. It was not her proudest moment and she wouldn't have wanted anyone to see her that way.

John Tresdale had been wonderful to her, in a grandfatherly way. He had taken her in. When she wanted help, he gave it to her. His resources had been at her disposal. Initially she had felt guilty for using his money, but when he began teaching her, the guilt was replaced by a need to succeed.

Climbing up to a treadmill, she set it and began a slow run, and then would begin running harder. She reached for a remote sitting near her and turned the music on, making it loud to help drown out her thoughts for a bit. Not that it would do much good.

The look on Ranger's face when he met RJ made her smile again. RJ wouldn't have been able to take Ranger, but the fact that he had moved quick enough to protect her was sweet. But then, he had been looking out for her for the last few years in a big brother fashion. Not in a Ranger fashion.

The treadmill next to her claimed an occupant. A quick glance beside her told her it was Alex, another of her merry men. He was their physician they kept on hand. He had also been with her through the last few years. There were about five men living with her. If her mother knew that she'd didn't know what would happen. If they met Grandma Mazur, she knew they would all find a way to never go to her parents house again.

They ran in silence for several minutes before Alex reached over and grabbed the remote from her. "You're going to kill your eardrums." He said after turning the volume down.

She shrugged. "Beats out thoughts though."

"RJ said Ranger broke the system." Alex commented.

"I'm sure he didn't break it, and if he did, he can damn well fix it."

"Are you sure you want him to?"

"No." She admitted. It would just give Ranger a reason to install something that would help him keep an eye on her.

"Are we expecting him today?"

"I don't know." Part of her secretly hoped he would be by again, but the realistic side of her knew if he was on a mission then he would probably be gone for days. She didn't ask him because she didn't feel like she had the right to know anymore. But curiosity still ate her up inside at times!

"I'm thinking yes." Alex said. "Given that he's watching you right now."

Stephanie flicked her eyes toward a monitor that showed the house. She could see his SUV parked on the driveway. No doubt he'd just walked in and narrowed in on where she was. With a couple jabs at the machine, her speed picked up until she was running fast enough to hopefully avoid talking or thinking.

Alex ran next to her for another forty minutes before getting off. As he walked past Ranger, he said, "Good luck. She won't be off that for awhile."

Ranger walked over to the vacant treadmill and climbed on. He had been working out in his own gym at RangeMan when he'd decided to come talk to Stephanie. Fortunately for him he was still wearing his black workout clothes. Within moments he was running at the same speed, if not harder.

They ran for a couple hours. Every so often, one of Stephanie's men would come and peak in, and found them both running hard. Stephanie was aiming to outrun thoughts, while Ranger was aiming to run her into exhaustion to get her off the treadmill.

"Who do you think caves first?" Alex as RJ paused to look in.

"Sugar Plum. Ranger has more running behind him." RJ looked disgruntled. "He's got some of his men here too."

"Might as well feed them. Tell them breakfast is being cooked. Steph will eat a lot if she keeps trying to outrun Ranger."

Ranger had finally had enough. Slowing himself down to a stop. He waited for a moment before hitting the off button on Stephanie's machine and grabbing her. He hauled her off and held her at least a foot off the ground.

"Finished?"

"No." She replied through gritted teeth. Her blue eyes were guarded as she stared him down. Ranger wanted to know what she was running from, but knew it was too soon to ask.

"Hey, breakfast is ready." RJ said. "We told your men to come in and eat, but they won't leave their vehicles."

"I didn't tell them they could." Ranger replied.

"Tell them to come in and eat." Stephanie said. "And put me down."

…

As they entered the large kitchen, Ranger's men were walking in. Tank came in carrying a large vase of flowers. "These came for you."

Stephanie took them and looked at the card.

_We aren't finished._

The look on her face darkened. Alex looked over her shoulder. Ranger snatched the card out of her hand. Instinct to protect her kicked in. Knowing from experience that locking her up would do little good he began working through the options.

"I have a suggestion." Alex said carefully. Stephanie gave him her full attention. Face expressionless. She was assessing the card, assessing her options. What she wanted to do. "According to RJ, Ranger broke our system."

"It was crap."

"Then perhaps you'd get us set up with a better system."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows at him, pursed her lips together and walked out of the room.

"Might as well eat," RJ said to everyone. "She'll be a bit."

"Any ideas who this is?" Ranger asked.

"Yes."

When he didn't receive more information, he drummed his fingers on the counter. "And who is it?"

"Sugar Plum has to tell you." RJ replied. "We're just going to make sure she's prepared if the bastard slips past us."

Given RJ's response, Ranger guessed it was in relation to the incident that happened to make her stay in Europe. He would wait until she was ready to talk. If he could convince her to talk to him.

…

What Stephanie finally appeared she was dressed in business suit, her hair swept back into a twist. The make up she applied enhanced her blue eyes. Under the presentation she showed was something dangerous. Ranger could see it just by looking at her. He could recognize it.

"Leaving?" RJ asked.

"I have a couple meetings." She said picking up her keys.

"Given the current, ah, situation, perhaps someone should go with you." Alex suggested.

"I'm fine."

"We've got your back, you know that, but in the case, we're more than a little concerned about your welfare. If he finds you…" Alex trailed off unwilling to finish the sentence. He and the others who were employed by her were too aware of what would happen if Stephanie was found by the man.

"If he finds me, I'll kill him." Stephanie said flatly. She looked at Ranger and his men. "Feel free to hang out if you want. I'll be back in a few hours. Try playing nice with each other."

She left them and headed into the garage. Getting into the Porsche she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Panicking was not an option, she told herself. She would conduct business as it needed to be conducted. She would live her life. She was prepared now.

"Gotta stop leaving your doors unlocked, babe." Ranger said settling into the passenger seat. She noted he'd changed clothes himself. Impressive, but he was still Batman as far as she was concerned.

"Where do you think you're going?" She demanded.

"A couple business meetings."

"They better be your own."

"Don't worry." Ranger reached over and tucked a curl around her ear. "They're not."

"Fine." She started the car and before Ranger realized it they were tearing down the road. Stephanie was handling her car extremely well. She eyed Ranger. "There better not be trackers on my car."

He simply smiled.

Sighing, she pulled out her phone and cast a glare toward him as she dialed RJ. "Go out to the garage and make sure none of the cars have trackers on them."

Hanging up, she cast a defiant look at Ranger. He smiled again. They fell into silence as they drove into Trenton. When she parked in front of a building, he got out and walked next to her into the restaurant.

"Ah, Ms. Plum." The maitre de nodded hello. "Your party as already arrived." He looked at Ranger. "You've another to add?"

"Yes, I apologize for the inconvenience."

"No inconvenience." He smiled winningly at her. He was a lanky man with thin black hair and a pencil thin mustache. He was extremely fond of his current guest due to the large tip she had given him the last time she was here a week ago.

"Mr. Reynolds, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." Stephanie shook hands with him as Ranger pulled out her chair.

"Not a problem, Ms. Plum. I'm extremely glad you agreed to meet with me." Sal Reynolds was at least twenty years older than Stephanie, with a belly from being well fed and a balding head of white hair. He had a thick white mustache. She had met him in England a few times when she dined with John Tresdale.

Sal looked at Ranger. "Sal Reynolds. Pleased to meet you."

"Carlos Manoso."

"Well, now that we're all acquainted, shall we get to business?" Sal smiled as they all sat.

Ranger watched her over the meal. She handled things smoothly, with class and charm. She laughed appropriately at Reynolds's jokes. Stephanie had sales slips with her and when they were at dessert they completed the transaction. He almost didn't recognize the woman he was sitting with. A veil came over her when sat with people she didn't know or trust. Ranger gathered it would take some time learning the new things about her, but he'd do it.

As they left he said. "Babe."

"Yes?"

"Art?"

Stephanie looked at him. "Oh, you must not have heard. Three weeks ago John passed away. He wanted his precious artworks to go to places he thought they would get the most use. He has several pieces in his estate in New York. As executor to his will, he requested that I find them good homes."

They came back to the car and began driving again. She smiled wistfully. "It's sad. He was a good man. I'll miss him."

"Your business is art." Ranger sounded amused.

"Among other things."

"Like?"

Stephanie smiled. "Many things, Batman."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After a morning and afternoon of watching Stephanie go through meetings, Ranger felt like their roles had been reversed. As they drove home, he reflected on what he had known about Stephanie before she left and the Stephanie who was sitting next to her. She hadn't been kidding when she said she had a hand in more than just art. She seemed to have a finger in various areas, all of them legitimate. And somehow, he was still working out how; she had managed to get him some lucrative prospects for customers interested in security.

What was left of _his _Stephanie?

"Do you still watch Ghostbusters?" He asked finally.

"Of course. There are just some things you never let go of." She replied.

"Such as?"

_You_, she thought but kept it to herself. Instead she smiled and said, "Tastykakes."

"Those will kill you, babe." He replied.

"A lot of things will."

"If you want the security system Alex mentioned we can get something worked out."

Stephanie nodded. "That's fine. Have something sent over to my office in New York. I'll take a look at it and send it back to you." She glanced at him and saw him raise an eyebrow. "I'm still finessing things for John's estate so I'll be up there for a few days. The boys can get a hold of me if you need me."

"I have your number, babe."

"It'll be out of service for those days." She said. "I don't make myself available when I deal with John's estate. There's too much risk."

"Risk of what?"

"Oh, Pinos!" Stephanie pulled over. "The boys will love some pizza."

As they emerged from the car, Ranger felt like hitting his head on the vehicle. Part of him wondered if Stephanie was paying him back for all the evasiveness he had given her, which had always been to protect her and him. It didn't help that he had finally begun opening up to her.

Now she had closed off to him. Even as he walked with her into Pino's and watched her order and interact with people she hadn't seen in three years, he could see the difference and so could others. She didn't rise easily to the baits people threw at her for not being around. She smiled calmly, continued to converse with them then gathered up the pizzas and handed them to Ranger to take with them.

"Are you and the boys staying for dinner?" She asked once they were back in the car.

"We can." Ranger looked at the boxes of pizza. It looked like she was going to feed an army. And she probably was, he reflected, if her men were anything like his own. They could all eat a good amount of food.

Unconsciously, Stephanie turned on music. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture blasted out, making them both jumped.

"Whoops." Stephanie smiled as she turned the volume down.

"Classics, babe? What happened to Metallica?"

"In the glove box if you want to listen to it."

What the hell was going on? Ranger wondered as they drove the rest of the way in silence with cannons firing off from the Overture.

….

Stephanie walked through the large house sitting on John Tresdale's estate. He hadn't brought her here, but she could feel his presence throughout the house. There was a masculine elegance that clearly screamed him. Perhaps that had been part of the reason she opened up to him, she reflected. He was similar to Ranger in the sense that they didn't decorate in abundance. They kept things earthy. Tresdale's guilty pleasure had been rare paintings. He loved his paintings and had kept them in pristine condition. Now she was determined to follow with his last orders and get them to good homes. Most of them had gone to museums. He would have liked that, she thought, for people to enjoy them as much as he had.

He'd taught her about paintings, about artwork. She had taught him about Baseball and the joy of pizza. Stephanie smiled as memories of him came to mind when they argued over a baseball game. He had found a way to get all the baseball games from the states over to his estate in England and spent hours pouring over the game while Stephanie trained. Once in a while she would be called in when he was angry over a call from the Umps. Then they would argue for awhile about the call.

She had learned so much from him, aside from artwork. She understood investments, stocks, real estate, weapons, music, fine wines, self defense, etc. He had been Henry Higgins to her. Just like Ranger when she went into bounty hunting. In the end when she found out she was inheriting all of his money and a couple of estates, she had begged him not to, to put it towards another. But he had insisted.

_"Please, John," Stephanie said tearfully, "Don't give this to me. You've done enough by helping me learn to protect myself."_

_ "Enough." He patted her hand. He was laying in bed with tubes hooked to him. He would not think of being moved to a hospital. He knew his time was coming and he wanted to die in his home. "You've earned it. You've been more of a child to me than my own child has. I expect you to follow out my instructions in the will. And if you give away all my money out of guilt, I'll come back to haunt you!" He smiled and gave a small chuckle, earning a laugh out of Stephanie. "Ahh, there's my girl. It's time for you to go back to Trenton."_

_ She shook her head. "No, I…"_

_ "Yes." He interrupted. "I've taught you all I can. It's been a lot and the progress you've made astounded me. I only know of one person who can match you and he's waiting impatiently for you to come home."_

_ "What? How do you…" Stephanie narrowed her eyes. "You old dog. You know him."_

_ "Course I do." He coughed and accepted the glass of water a nurse brought in. When she left he continued to speak. "He's a good man. Honorable. Tried like hell to find you when you said you weren't coming home. He's only stayed off because he knows you're here with me."_

_ Stephanie stared at him in shock. Knowing Ranger had tried finding her made her heart swell, at the same time relief flooded knowing he wouldn't have seen her in the state she was in._

_ "He won't recognize me." She said softly._

_ "Young lady, a man always recognizes what's his." John said firmly. He squeezed her hand. "It doesn't matter what kind of change you go through. You're his. Even I could tell that when I found his picture on your phone. I could hear it when I spoke to him. He wants you back. Be nice to him. He's had a rough time with you being gone. He loves you. Ahh, if I were fifty years younger, Ranger wouldn't have a chance with you."_

_ Stephanie laughed. "I'll be sure to tell him that."_

_ "Good. Now, go turn on the television. If I'm going to die at home, I'm going to die watching a game."….._

He had died at home that night, Stephanie sighed as she watched a couple movers come in to take away some of the sold artwork. He'd gone quietly in his sleep. They had stayed up late watching the baseball game. When she saw him the next morning and realized he'd passed, she could have sworn she saw a smile on his face.

"Ms. Plum, we've got all the art we were sent for." Stephanie smiled at the man standing in front of her and thanked him.

She walked through the house once more, giving it a brief assessment. This was one of the estates she was selling. He had another in the states that she was to keep. She could use it for her own safe house, she surmised. She would have to send a couple of the boys out to make sure that everything was good.

The last couple days had been productive. Things were going well. In a couple hours she would meet with a real estate agent to get this sold. The beauty of this, she thought with secret glee, was that she could get rid of the money for this house. She would donate it to a good cause. There were people who needed it more than she.

Her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Sugar Plum, Tank is here demanding to talk to you." RJ said. Tank came on the line quickly. "Bomber, Ranger's taken a hit."

Everything froze around her. She couldn't breathe. "Wh-what?"

"He'll live, but it seems for the moment our building is at risk. We want to put him up at your estate until he can recoup."

"Yes, of course." She said immediately. "RJ will help you make sure everything is secure. I'll be home late tonight."

They disconnected. Stephanie's heart hammered violently in her chest. If this was anything like what Ranger went through not being able to get to her, she owed him big time.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Report." Stephanie demanded as she stepped out of her car. RJ and Alex had been waiting for her when she arrived.

"They're not sharing information. The wound isn't too bad. He'll be up and about in a day or so, but based off what Tank said to you on the phone, the safest place for him may be here until they figure out who is targeting RangeMan." Alex said as they walked briskly into the house.

Stephanie found Tank waiting outside her room. "Sorry, Bomber, but he insisted."

"Of course he did." She rolled her eyes then walked into the room. Ranger was sitting against the window looking groggy, but awake.

"Ranger?"

"Babe."

"Good." She sighed and walked into her large closet. She was shaking. The thought of Ranger being hurt scared her. It brought back memories of Scrog. Slowly she changed into yoga pants and tank top. The shaking hadn't faded as she walked out of the closet and headed to the bed.

Ranger watched her as she sat down near him and folded her legs under her. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'll live." His shoulder was wrapped up. He took care not to move it too much. It would hurt more in the morning, but he would overcome this.

"What happened?"

"Someone shot me as I was leaving RangeMan." He rubbed his eyes.

"Are you working on anything right now that someone would want you out of the way?"

"Only you." Ranger replied taking one of her hands. He watched as her cheeks flushed. He could feel her heart racing under his hand. Lifting her palm to his mouth he kissed it. Her eyes darkened into sapphires as her lips parted. Unconsciously she licked her lips.

"Babe." He let go of her hand and reached for her.

Quickly she got off the bed. "I'm going to take a quick work out. Do you need anything to eat?"

"Yes, but not what you're thinking." He replied.

"Are you sure?" She gave a sultry smile and walked out of the room.

She spent the next couple hours away from her room. She focused on yoga for an hour and then worked her way to her office where she could get some work done. She found Mac working on her computer.

"Mac, you promised." Stephanie sighed as she leaned on her doorframe. Mac poked his head up from under her desk.

"I promised I'd stop after all updates are finished. They're not finished." Mac smiled at her. He had dirty blonde hair and big puppy dog eyes. Women all over found him adorable and he spent many nights in beds other than his own. He had given his loyalty to Stephanie when John passed, as had most of the men who worked for John. They liked her. She was nice to them, she rarely beat any of them up, and she made them laugh.

"Weren't you working on other computers?"

"Yes, they're finished."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, before finding herself ushered into the office with RJ and Alex behind her. "What's up?"

"Did Ranger say anything?"

_Yes._ "Only that there's no one he's currently pissing off."

Alex leaned against the door. "Do you think he might be going after Ranger to get to you?"

"It's possible."

"How did he get the flowers here?" RJ mused out loud. "There's no way he could've gotten the information. We've kept you unlisted and taken every precaution."

"Ranger found her." Mac pointed out from under the desk.

"But he's Ranger." Stephanie said.

"Yeah," Mac popped out from under the desk. He pulled a sticky note off her monitor, "Remember; WWRD?"

Alex gave a bark of laughter. "True."

All three of them looked at Stephanie. She leaned back against a wall and thought. "We'll stay here. He hasn't actually gotten to the house. So far he's only made outside attacks. I'll just go about my daily life."

"And your family?"

"We have a couple men watching them. I'm sure Ranger would be willing to spare a couple men to help with that as well, but I don't think they're in as much danger as, well…" Her hand motioned upward toward her bedroom. She wasn't sure she liked the change of events where she was keeping Ranger safe, but it was a way to even things out she thought. After all the times he'd saved her, she'd do what she could to make him stay safe. Which would be interesting.

"I'll go talk to him." Stephanie paused by the door. "Mac I swear if you're not finished with my computer in the morning, I'll meet you downstairs on the mats."

"I swear on my life I will be finished!" He cried out.

She laughed leaving the office and going back to her room. Ranger was asleep when she walked in. Guess that saved her from talking to him right now. She took a quick shower and dressed in her pajamas, this time a t-shirt and shorts. Ranger was on one side of the bed and she purposely took the other.

…

A harsh ringing woke her in the middle of the night. Fumbling toward the edge of the bed, she found her phone on the floor and hit speaker. "'Lo?"

"_Stephanie._"

She brought herself to her elbows, wide awake now. "What do you want?"

A cold laugh came over the line. "You know. Just like you know you won't beat me."

"You can't touch me." She growled.

"Not yet. No, not yet. Finding you is proving difficult." There was silence for a moment. "Did you like my gift?"

"Flowers were tacky."

"Ahh, yes, I know what to send you next time, don't worry. I meant the other present. I made sure he would live. Did you panic when you heard? Did your heart race with fear of losing him? Don't worry. He won't die until you can watch it. I'll let him live long enough to see what I will do with you. I'll enjoy torturing both of you. And before I finish—"

Stephanie ended the call. She closed her eyes. Every inch of her was shaking. A cold sweat broke out over her.

"Babe."

She shrieked and jerked away, falling off the bed. She laid there dazed for several moments. She had forgotten he'd been in bed with her.

Ranger leaned over the side and looked down at her. "Now that I know he's using me to get to you, care to tell me what's going on?"


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: **I swear I'm not attempting to be bad about the disclaimers, lol. I just get on a role and keep on going! I don't own them. Although I wouldn't mind owning Ranger. Anyway, thanks for all your wonderful reviews! Hope this chapter does some pleasing :-)

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Alex waited until Stephanie left the house that morning. She would go about her daily life, which was good. She wasn't allowing her fear to run her life. He had heard about the phone call this morning from RJ who had spent a grueling three hours helping Stephanie work off the frustration. Most of the men crashing in the house had come down to see a slender woman taking down a big man like RJ. It was usually entertaining, but today they knew it was therapeutic.

"Tank," Alex called when he saw the other man. "Do me a favor. Gather your men and Ranger and meet us in the large dining room. We have to fill you on what's going on."

Several minutes later, all of them were sitting in the dinning room. Ranger was sitting at the head of the table. If Stephanie were there she would be sitting at the other end. It only seemed fitting. Alex had spent most of the night trying to decide what to do. Finally he decided taking Stephanie's wrath would be the better than finding her dead in the long run. He knew they needed help from Ranger and his men, but he had to make sure they knew what happened.

Alex walked around handing folders out. The men started flipping through them as he stood at the other end. "I know what I'm doing could be considered a betrayal to Stephanie, but considering the flowers she received and the fact that Ranger was attacked, it stands to reason that we update all of you on the events that kept her in Europe."

"While she was in Europe she met Brett Traymon. From what I understand, she just came off a break up with a local cop here and was using some time in Europe to cool down. Brett wooed her. She made it perfectly clear to him that nothing was going to come of it because she was interested in someone at home. Brett cooled back a bit, befriended her, showed her some of the local sights in England. He brought her home to meet his grandfather.

"A few days before she was scheduled to fly back to the states, Brett tried to convince her to stay. He wanted to convince her that she was better off there. When it didn't work, he attacked her."

By this time Ranger was looking at the photos of Stephanie. She had been badly beaten. Her face was bloody and bruised. His hand curled into a fist. He looked at Alex and waited for him to continue.

"He did more than just attack her. He raped her." Alex watched Ranger carefully. The man went stone still, and suddenly he realized it had been smart to tell him what was going on. Ranger would help protect her. "Brett's grandfather found her and got her medical attention. As luck would have it, Brett's grandfather didn't particularly like his grandson. This wasn't the first time that Brett had done something like that. But for whatever reason, John Tresdale didn't want Brett getting away with this one. He helped Stephanie press charges and got him in jail.

"He offered to get Stephanie home immediately, but she said she wouldn't go home looking the way she did. She asked if he knew anyone who could teach her to fight. Ranger, I'm sure you know John Tresdale well enough to know that answer."

Ranger did. As he struggled to see past the red haze that had overcome him, he knew it would have caused Stephanie to snap to be violated like that. She would only be pushed so far, and that had been the breaking point.

"John got her trained. It didn't take long. She was determined. RJ worked with her a lot to help." Alex motioned to the man sitting to his right. "But for whatever reason, she wanted more. She didn't want to come back as clumsy as she left. Her words, not mine."

"She has a sticky note on her monitor." Mac chimed in, looking down at Ranger. "It says WWRD. Whenever things seem to get to her, she just mutters that over and over."

"WWRD?" Tank looked down at them.

"What Would Ranger Do." RJ explained.

There was a brief pause before some of Ranger's men chuckled. When everyone settled down, Alex continued, "When John died, it was time to come back. She wanted to, I think, by that point. A couple days ago, I found out that Brett was out of prison. I don't know how he did it, but I know he's not happy that he has no place to stay, no fortune, and is extremely pissed off with Stephanie."

Ranger continued to look at the folder. It had a list of information on Brett, including some other rapes that had occurred that Tresdale had covered up. "What was it about Stephanie that made Tresdale help her instead of cover it up?"

"He knew about you." Alex replied. "He could see she was special."

"Now that everyone is up to speed, and we know that Ranger was attacked by Brett, I'm sure we can all find a way to protect Ranger and Stephanie." RJ said.

Everything in the room went dead silent. Given what most of the Merry Men had just heard, they would be surprised if Ranger didn't pack her up and hide her in his most secure safe house.

"Realistically, it would be easier to hide both of you away until we find Brett, but that's not going to fly with Stephanie. She's willing to draw him out and kill him herself." RJ told him. "She's going to go about her day as calmly as possible and wait until he makes a move. Unfortunately, Brett will bide his time. He hasn't found a way to get to the house yet. We're still working out how he got the flowers to the house….Stephanie."

"What's going on?" Stephanie walked into the room.

"Um, well…" Mac drifted off when she held up a hand. She picked up a folder from the table and flipped through it.

"Steph—" Alex stopped speaking when she held her hand back up.

"It's for your protection." RJ said ignoring her hand. "Ranger and his men need to know what they're up against and why."

"Hm." Stephanie closed the folder and placed it on the table gently. She took a quick sweep of the room. Her eyes met Ranger's briefly. Quietly, she turned and left the room.

"This was a bad idea." Mac said.

"Why? Scared Bomber will taser you?" Lester asked.

"No, that doesn't scare me. What she will do scares me, and none of us know what she'll do."

They all fell into a brief silence, wondering what Stephanie would do now that her secret was out. Ranger spoke first. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you this doesn't leave the room." His men nodded in agreement. "Good. Then we will all work together. For now, until we get a better grip on Brett Traymon's methods, we will go about our daily lives."

"Boss, we think it's best if you stay here. The phone call Stephanie got last night puts you in danger too. He managed to get you as you were coming out of RangeMan." Tank said.

"If he's planning to use you against her, then keeping you two together would be safest." Hal pointed out.

Ranger nodded. He would have liked to go out and find Brett and beat the shit out of him and kill him, but logically, he had no idea where to start. The men who worked for Stephanie would be the best place to start. They knew Brett and they knew Stephanie.

"What can we expect from him?"

"Not sure." One guy spoke up. "He's never acted like this before. He usually does his thing, expects his grandfather to clean it up, then moves on. I don't think he was counting on Stephanie Plum. Hell, we weren't counting on Stephanie Plum. The man is smart. He'll give all of us a run for our money before we catch him. He's going to fuck with Stephanie for awhile."

"Her family needs to be protected."

"They are, but he won't bother with them. He sees her as his object and he sees you as his enemy. The only other person besides her he'll fixate on is you."

Ranger sat back and thought for awhile. They were right of course. If Brett couldn't get to the house he and Stephanie were both safe. He was too unfamiliar with Brett to willingly go out and try hunting him. While he was sure he'd win, he wasn't sure how the outcome would be ultimately.

"We'll set up the base of operation here." Ranger decided. "Are there spare rooms we can use?"

"Yeah, we'll show you." Alex motioned for them to follow. They walked to a different wing of the house. "Here's the armory," He opened a door, "so if any of us need…son of a bitch…."

Everyone peered around him. Every weapon they had, which was many, was on the floor disassembled. Mac shook his head. "I told you this was a bad idea. It's going to take hours to get those all put back together."

"RJ, we told you not to teach her how to do that!" The man who'd spoken earlier, snapped.

"Shut up, Seth." RJ grumbled.

"Bomber did that?" Tank looked impressed.

"It's RJ's fault." Seth said. "She wanted to know how to dismantle a weapon. None of us thought it was a good idea except RJ. So he taught her. Now she's used it as punishment."

Ranger choked on a laugh as he walked away to keep exploring. Whatever he had been expecting from Stephanie that certainly hadn't been it. He glanced out a window and saw her jogging away from the house along the river. Instinct made him want to run after her, but something said for now she was safe running out there.

"Okay, so we'll come back to that disaster later." Alex motioned them along.

…

_Ranger knew_. It was the only thought that had been plaguing her mind since she began running. She had told him she would explain things later and they both managed to go back to sleep. When she'd woken, she'd found herself wrapped tightly in Ranger's arms. It had been safe. Comforting.

But she wouldn't let herself fall into that. She wanted to make sure she could protect herself against Brett without Ranger. She jogged harder, then came to a stop, breathing hard. Holding the back of her hand to her mouth, she forced down the urge to cry. She might be able to protect herself, but when it came down to it, if it came down to killing him, she had no idea if she could do it. She had done it before out of self defense but…

She shook her head and kept running. She would do what she had to if it was called for. There would be no second guessing herself.

"_Stephanie."_

She whirled around and saw Brett standing twenty feet away from her. A quick glance around told her she had run at least six miles away from the house. Which meant Brett was close to knowing where she was if she didn't already.

"It hurts to know you didn't wait for me to get out of jail, Steph." Brett ambled closer, but Stephanie took several steps away. The last time she had seen him he'd a slightly muscular build. It seemed that spending time in jail had done more for him that way. He was no where near the size Benito Ramirez had been, but he was still scary. She could see the madness shadowing Brett's eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded.

"I've come for you." He smiled. He'd had a charming smile, but knowing what she knew about him now, it didn't seem like a charming one. It seemed like one hiding his insanity.

She shook her head. "No, that's not why you're here."

"Isn't it?" He angled his head, still watching her. "You should be mine. Not his. We will just get on a plane and go back to England. Of course you'll be the provider seeing as how my grandfather favored you over me. The estate will be redecorated of course…"

"I sold the estate." She said, attempting to distract him enough that she could get away.

It was the wrong thing to say. With an angry snarl, he lunged at her. Stephanie tried to dodge him, but he caught her by the ankle. She tried not to yelp as she felt the twist in it.

RJ's training kicked in for her. She managed to free herself, and run into the woods, but Brett wasn't disabled for long. Stephanie knew that he was unfamiliar enough with the area that she could lose him and keep her house safe, especially since she was so far from the house.

Brett caught her by the shirt, but she ducked out of it leaving her in her shorts and workout bra. Still undeterred, he grabbed her and shoved her into a tree. Bark tore at her ribs. Her head was throbbing, but she forced herself to think clearly.

"How dare you!" He shouted. "We should have been making that decision! Not you alone! You will pay, and then you will get our house back."

_Survive_.

The one word popped into her head. Unsure of what she did, she managed to knock Brett away from her. He staggered and fell. Underneath the fallen leaves, he hit a rock on the side of his head. Stephanie saw the blood, but didn't hesitate to run like hell to get away. This time she would survive.


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: **Thanks everyone, for the wonderful reviews! I'm going to stop for the day! In 24 hours I've put out 7 chapters. I think I need a small break to decompress!

Disclaimer: Don't own them, just like to play with them!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Stephanie staggered into the kitchen, breathing hard. Six miles at the breakneck pace she had done had all but given her a heart attack. Every inch of her was covered in sweat. But she was safe, assuming Brett was still laying in a pool of blood.

Getting herself over to the intercom the kitchen held, she punched a button and said, "Alex, infirmary. Now."

How she managed to get herself up the stairs to the infirmary they had installed was beyond her, but she had. When she walked into the room she found two sets of Merry Men waiting. And one look from Ranger said he was extremely pissed off at what he was seeing.

"What happened?" Alex asked watching Ranger stride to her. Despite his shoulder, he managed to make picking her up look easy. He took her to one of the beds and sat her down.

As Alex looked her over, she relayed the meeting with Brett. He hadn't done nearly as much damage as he could have. Given the chance, he would try raping her again. Everyone in the room knew he would not get that chance again.

"Tank, RJ, go make sure his body is there. If it is, get rid of it." Ranger ordered, keeping his eyes on Stephanie. Stephanie gave them the location and slouched over wearily.

"You're going to want to take it easy on your ankle for a couple days." Alex told her. "Other than that, the scratches on your ribs, shoulder and head should heal with little problem. They'll bruise, but you'll live."

"Good." Gingerly she stepped down off the bed and slowly made her way to her room. Ranger stayed in step with her. "Ranger, I don't need a babysitter."

"No, you need a fucking bodyguard." He snapped. Stephanie stopped and looked at him.

"You are not coming with me." She said in a tight voice.

"The hell I'm not." He growled. Before she had a chance to respond, he grabbed her, threw her over his good shoulder and hauled her through the house to her own bedroom. All the while he ignored the looks from the men that had come out into the hall to see what was going on and Stephanie's loud tirade against him. No one made any move to get involved. None of them were willing to.

Ranger took her straight into her bathroom. He opened the door to it and turning on the shower he threw her in it. She shrieked as the water hit her. She sat on the floor glaring up at him as the water covered her.

"You son of a bitch!" She yelled getting to her feet. She shoved at him trying to make him move. He stood like a statue, arms folded over his chest. "Let me out of here!"

"Not until you get cleaned up." Ranger's lips twitched. "I can come in and help you if you're going to be difficult."

"No!" She swallowed. As much as she loved Ranger, she wasn't willing to let him that close to her right now. "You can leave. I'll be out in a moment. Promise."

He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment then turned and left the bathroom. Sighing, she shed the remainder of her clothes and showered, wincing at the pain from her injuries.

When she emerged Ranger was sitting on the bed, eyes closed. She watched him for several moments, relieved when she realized he was in his zone. She changed in black t-shirt and black shorts. Looking in the mirror she couldn't help the smile that tugged, despite the events of the day. She looked ready to go train in Ranger's gym. Dressed in all black.

Her ankle throbbing, surprisingly she hadn't landed on it when Ranger put her in the shower, she limped her way over to the bed and took the opposite side from Ranger. She faced the window with her leg propped up on a pillow. If Brett wasn't dead, and her gut said he wasn't, then she would need to intensify her training, she decided. She had barely gotten away from him when he attacked. She'd been ill-equipped. Ill-prepared. She had not expected to see him

"Babe." Ranger's eyes opened, and he took her hurt ankle in his hand and gently began massaging it. "Want to talk about it?"

Stephanie shook her head. "I wasn't prepared. I should have had my gun or knife with me and I didn't. I know better. It was stupid. I let my emotions get the better of me and ran out of the house when I could. I can't afford to that again."

"Probably not, but I wasn't talking about that."

"No. I don't want to talk about _that_." She tried to pull her ankle away, but Ranger held fast and slowly pulled her to him using her leg. When she was close enough he wrapped an arm around her waist trapping her to him.

"I'm going to kill him." Ranger said softly as they studied each other. "I'll kill him for the hell he put you through." He ran a hand along the side of her face, pushing her hair back behind her ear.

"John said if he'd been fifty years younger you would never have had a chance with me." Stephanie said softly.

"Don't worry, he wouldn't have last long against me either." He murmured softly. Their faces were inches from one another. Stephanie licked her lips and inched her face upward.

There was a knock on the door and Alex strolled in. "Some of the boys figure with your injuries you'll be laid up for a couple days. SO…they sent games."

"Games?" Both echoed.

Mac walked in holding two guitars. "Guitar Hero. Just…try not to use them on each other."

"They don't require much in the way of physical exertion." Alex said as two more men came in with a TV and hooked up the needed system. Stephanie and Ranger continued to look dumbfounded at the guitars in their hands.

"What do we do with them?" Stephanie asked Ranger once they left.

"Haven't got a clue."

"They should've given us a shooting game." She sighed. Ranger nodded in agreement.

…

The nightmare engulfed her. She couldn't escape. She screamed as she was caught. She struggled in a fight she couldn't win. There was yelling and laughter. Sick laughter that flooded her ears. Even in her nightmares she could feel the violating pain rip through her.

Two warm hands engulfed her. Spoke softly to her. Coaxed her out of her nightmare and back to reality. She opened her eyes and found herself wrapped in Ranger's arms. His eyes were watching her gently. Everything about him felt safe. She was gasping for breath.

"Babe." He stroked her face, moving hair out of the way.

"I'm sorry." She said breaking out of his hold. "It's not something I've dreamed about in some time. I thought they'd stopped."

"Don't be sorry." Ranger reached for her but stopped when she hunched away. "When you want to talk about it, you will."

She sat up and looked at him. She knew she could tell him anything and he would take it to his grave before telling a soul, but she couldn't bring herself to talk to him about this. Turning she laid back on her side facing him.

"Ranger, do you still want me?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Even knowing what he did to me?"

Ranger cupped the back of her neck and pulled her close to him. "You're mine, babe. I won't let him destroy you more than he has."

Tears filled her eyes. "I missed you. I just…missed you."

He kissed her. His arms slid back around her holding her close. He wanted to make love to her more than anything, but not until she was ready. For now he would just hold her and make plans to kill Brett when he got a hold of him.

"Ranger?"

"Babe."

"Our men mutinied against us."

"Yep."

"Since it doesn't look like any of us are leaving the house soon, would it be wrong if we snuck out and let the air out of all the tires?"

"Nope." He rolled off the bed, and helped her to her feet. As silently as they could both manage they snuck out of the house to the garage where all the cars were being held. One by one, they edged around letting out the air. Stephanie looked at Ranger and giggled at one point.

Back in the room, she burst out laughing. "Oh, that was fun!"

"Hope they can fill them back up."

"Don't worry. We've got an air compressor in the garage." Stephanie flopped back on the bed. "It'll just keep them busy for a bit."

"Did you really take apart all the guns in the armory?"

"Oh, have they gotten them back together?"

"No idea." Ranger joined her on the bed. "I was trying to figure out that guitar."

Stephanie yawned loudly. "I'm exhausted."

"Pranking your men can do that."

"Yours too." She murmured curling into him. Within moments, she had fallen back to sleep, this time a calming presence eased her, left her dreamless for the rest of the night. Ranger simply held her to him all night.

The next morning they woke to hearing shouts of surprise and outrage from all the men outside. Stephanie buried her face in Ranger's neck and muffled her laughter.

"Boss, Bomber, someone got to our cars." Tank burst into the room.

Ranger blocked his view of Stephanie. "Did you have any trouble finding Brett?"

"Never found him." Tank replied. "Just the bit of blood where he hit his head. We've been surveying things within a five mile radius of the house since we got back. Haven't seen him. He might have slipped past at night and managed to get to our vehicles."

Ranger could feel Stephanie shuddering hard with muffled laughter. "Are the tires irreparable?"

"Doesn't look like it." Tank said. "We'll be out there working on them for a bit. Mac and Seth are surveying the cameras to find out what happened."

Ranger stared at him until Tank took the hint and left. He leaned back and looked at Stephanie who was laughing so hard tears were coming down her cheeks. Ranger chuckled, and rolled onto his back waiting to find out what would happen when they discovered the whodunit.


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: **Thanks for the wonderful reviews everyone! This chapter is a litttle bit lighter than the previous few. I don't own them, I just play! :-) Hope y'all enjoy it!

* * *

**Chapter 8 **

The next couple days drove Ranger and Stephanie up a wall. They had been practically put under house arrest by their own men. RJ and Tank stood guard outside the door and refused to let them out. They were equipped with stun guns if necessary. Stephanie hadn't even been able to trick one of them out of their stun guns to get her and Ranger out of the room.

They had exhausted themselves on Guitar Hero. Silence seemed to be the best angle because it made the men nervous. There was a comfortable silence between them, Ranger noted. Neither pushed the other to discuss anything they didn't want to.

It wasn't until Alex gave them both a clean bill of health that they had been let out of the room. After that, the men did their best to avoid pissing off their bosses more than they had already.

Ranger walked into the gym one morning to find RJ helping Stephanie with defense maneuvers. Tank was standing off to the side looking worn out. He stood beside his number one man watching as RJ ran his hand down Stephanie's leg and explained the position to her. He could feel the stirrings of jealousy in his blood.

"What happened to you?" Ranger asked Tank.

"Stephanie happened. Boss, she's a machine!" Tank rubbed his eyes. "I spent two hours getting thrown to the floor by her. I don't want to go back out there."

Stephanie hadn't had to look up to know that Ranger was there. She knew he was, and always knew when he came into a room. She let RJ guide her through more defense techniques. Then they began sparring. RJ could hold his own against Stephanie, but he wore out before she did.

Then Ranger stepped up to her.

Most of them men found themselves drawn to the two. Alex let out a low whistle at one point. "She can't beat him."

Les looked at him. "Is that good?"

"She took Tank down." RJ said. "She took me down, but Ranger can't take her down, or won't, but she can't beat him."

"Good way for her to work out a lot of anger." Alex said. All the men nodded in agreement.

Ranger could see the feral look in her eyes when he moved against her. Brett's actions had left a deep wound that hadn't healed completely. She was angry, very angry, and she needed someone who would help ease that anger out. She'd put a mask on it, but he could see it clearly. Brett was back and that was unforgivable in her eyes. She would make sure she wouldn't be caught unaware again.

He sparred with her for a few hours, both dripping sweat before he finally took hold of the situation and in a few short moves pinned her. There was a collective gasp from all the men.

Stephanie focused on the person holding her down. She had forgotten she was sparring with Ranger. All she had seen was Brett's face and all she had felt was the desire to beat him the way she had been beaten. She blinked several times trying to make herself come back to the moment.

Ranger's eyes never left her face. She sighed. "I'm okay. You can let me up."

"Got a lot of anger, babe." He said helping her up. "You want to beat him, you're gonna have to think past the anger." Ranger turned to walk with her out of the gym. Both came to a stop when they saw all their men watching, complete with snacks and drinks.

"Don't you have work to do?" Stephanie demanded. They scurried out of the room like children who'd been caught with their hands in cookie jars. "Alex, where's Mac?"

"Had to go to court today. Things are getting ugly."

Stephanie shook her head. Ranger waited until they were out of ear shot. "What's Mac doing in court?"

"His ex wants sole custody of their daughter and wants to ream him for everything he's worth." She answered. "Woman spends more time drinking and neglecting the poor thing than taking care of her." They walked into her room. "Mac's job might not be the safest, but he loves her more than anything. His ex knows that and she wants to use Elise to make Mac's life hell."

"So they're fighting over her in court."

Stephanie gave him a shark like smile. "She's trying to fight him. My lawyer stepped in and will pin her ass to the wall."

"Babe, you've never ceased to amaze me." Ranger chuckled. "Need help?" He asked her as she walked toward the bathroom. His eyes ran down the length of her body. The old banter seemed to come out of nowhere.

She smiled and winked. "Don't worry, Batman. There will be plenty of cold water for you." To top off the statement, when she was out of his eyesight, she threw her workout bra out of the room.

He was definitely going to need the cold water.

…

Ranger's office had been put into Stephanie's. It was large and spacious enough that they weren't cramped into the office. Sunlight streamed in warmly, making room a comfortable temperature. Both of them worked studiously on their computers.

Stephanie's work phone rang. She picked it up and with a few "Mm-hm"s and a "Yep." She hung up. She glanced over at Ranger. "Tomorrow I need to be in New York to help finish a sale on Tresdale's estate. Care to join?"

"Sounds good." He said not looking up from his computer. He was trying to find anything on Brett Traymon. Ranger knew it was going to be a tough search. Tresdale was almost better than himself at hiding tracks. If he had been hiding his grandson's tracks it would be tough to find them.

"Babe." He looked over at her.

"Hmm?" Stephanie was focused on her monitor.

"Where are Traymon's parents?"

Stephanie looked at him. "Oh, um, I believe they were killed in a plane crash." She shrugged. "John didn't talk about them much. He loved his daughter, was tolerant of Brett's father, and really didn't like Brett. He missed his daughter though."

_Perhaps that was the reason he latched to you_, Ranger thought. He could remember Tresdale talking about his daughter vaguely. They'd worked together some years ago. He hadn't mentioned what happened to his daughter, but he knew he loved her.

A little flash caught his attention. His lips twitched. "Babe."

"Hm?"

"There's a munchkin crawling across your floor."

Stephanie looked up at him. "What?" She looked around the side of her desk, then smiled. "Elise. Why are you crawling on the floor?"

A five year old little girl jumped up. Brown curls came down in cascades and her dark eyes shined. "Aunt Steph, I'm hiding!"

"You're hiding?"

"Yes!" She nodded emphatically. "There's a bear in the house!"

"A bear?"

"Yes! He's huge!" She held her arms out in emphasis.

"Boss," Tank walked into the room.

Elise shrieked. "The bear!"

She ran around and crawled under Ranger's legs and hid beneath his desk. He looked down at her then back at Tank. "You're a bear."

"Should I roar?" Tank asked.

"Elise!" Mac raced into the room. "Is she…?"

Stephanie pointed toward Ranger. "He's hiding her from the bear." She pointed at Tank as she said that.

"Geeze." Mac rubbed his face. "Elise, come on out."

"The bear might eat me." She said from under the desk.

"The bear is a friendly bear."

Ranger moved back as Elise poked her head up. The only thing Mac or Tank could see were her eyes. "Really?"

"Yep. Wouldn't harm a fly." Mac looked at Tank. "He's a Care Bear."

Ranger choked on laughter at the look on Tank's face. Elise looked at Ranger. "Is he really a Care Bear?"

"You bet." Ranger nodded. "He's Cheer Bear."

Slowly Elise turned and looked wide eyed at Tank.

"Elise, come on, honey." Mac said. "It's time for a nap. You were up for a long time today."

Elise crept around Ranger's desk slowly. Her eyes widened like saucers the closer she got to Tank. When she got close enough, Tank growled slightly. With a shriek Elise ran out of the room.

"Elise!" Mac glared at Tank. "Thanks. She's good at hiding." He turned to leave, then growled, "Freaking Grumpy Bear."

"Mac, when you get her settled come back and talk to me." Stephanie called to his departing back.

Ranger was hunched over laughing. Stephanie looked at Tank. "Care Bears don't growl."

Tank tried to look impassive, but failed. With a grunt he turned and walked out of the room. He turned back at the door. "It's good to know you two haven't procreated. She looks too much like the two of you." Then left.

Several minutes later Mac walked back in. "Steph, I'm sorry."

"No need. What happened?"

He couldn't contain the grin that split his face. "I love your lawyer. If I were gay, I'd marry him."

Stephanie laughed. "You got custody?"

"Not just that, he got her to sign over all parental rights." Mac shook his head. "When they brought out every charge against her and when I think of all the times she was home alone without her mother…"

"You got your girl." Stephanie smiled. "Just be glad to know you'll take care of her. Speaking of which, she can't sleep in your room."

"I know, and I'll start looking for places—"

"I didn't say you had to move out." She interrupted. "I just said she couldn't sleep in your room. There's an available room right next to yours. Just transform it into a girl's room she'll be happy."

Mac stared at her. "Really? Are you sure? With all the things going on right now, are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Stephanie focused on her monitor. "You work here most of the time, and between Ranger's Merry Men and our men, that little girl will be protected from every bump in the night."

Mac shifted, head down, slightly embarrassed. "Thanks, Steph." He rushed out of the office.

She looked up at the door and smiled, then glanced at Ranger. "What?"

"Proud of you, babe." He smiled and walked over. "That was sweet." He kissed her.

She blushed, then raised an eyebrow. "Care Bear? I didn't think you knew what that was."

"I have nieces and nephews, and a daughter." He leaned on her desk. "What protects you from every bump in the night these days?"

Stephanie smiled and stood. "Haven't you heard? Batman sleeps in my bed every night. No one messes with Batman."

He chuckled as he walked out of the office. They stopped as Elise came running by shrieking. Mac came running after her. He glanced at them, "Sorry!"

"Things are going to get a lot more interesting." Ranger said.


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: **Thanks for the reviews guys! I may not be able to update for a couple days. I've got a hectic work schedule, but hopefully I can squeeze one in tomorrow evening when I get home :-) Enjoy!

I don't own them, I just play.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Ranger and Stephanie left the following morning to head to New York. Ranger drove after they found the trackers from Stephanie's cars in a large bucket of water. She had been unapologetic for whoever had done it.

As they drove, he couldn't help the small smile on his face. "Babe. We have about ten men in a large house with a five year old girl."

"We sure do." Stephanie laughed. "But my men know how to deal with Elise. She's visited often enough." She watched him for a moment or two. "Are you alright with Elise?"

"Yeah." He took her hand in his. "Rachel takes care of Julie so I know I don't have to worry. Mac's ex wife was not a good mother."

"I didn't tell you all about her." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You've been looking my men up."

"Had to know if we should expect any more five year olds."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Stephanie sighed and leaned back in the seat. "Mac is the only one with a child. The others haven't had a desire to have kids. RJ and Alex least of all."

"I don't like RJ's hands on you." Ranger grumbled.

"He's training me, Ranger."

"I don't like it." He repeated.

Stephanie looked at him, then smiled. "You think he's interested in me? Oh," She started laughing. "Ranger, you don't have to worry about that."

"Got a wife?"

"No." She shook her head. "He has a lover. Alex."

Ranger blinked for a couple minutes. Stephanie was curled in the seat next to him laughing, her hand clutching his. It was good to hear her laugh as hard as she was. He imagined it had been a long time since she had let herself go that far.

"How many meetings do you have today?" He asked finally.

"Mm, a couple this afternoon. My evening is free then tomorrow a few more in the morning and afternoon. We can head home in the evening. I have an apartment in the city we can use."

Ranger nodded and continued driving.

…

Their first stop was the estate. Stephanie walked through inspecting everything with the real estate agent. Ranger kept an eye on Stephanie and their surroundings. He was sure Brett was aware of Tresdale's estates. If he had attacked Stephanie for selling the one in England, he would no doubt react badly to this sale as well. The real estate agent kept glancing warily over at Ranger. He had dressed in a black business suit to match Stephanie to draw as little attention to himself, but he knew he could look intimidating nonetheless.

They stopped in the kitchen. Stephanie looked around and gave a wistful smile then focused back on the agent. He asked, "Are you sure you want to send the money to a charity?"

"Yes. Make them anonymous, but make sure they get sent to good charities. There are a lot of needy kids out there. I can help a little this way."

"You're a good woman, Ms. Plum." He smiled at her. "There aren't enough like you in the world."

"Thank you."

"If you're going to be in town for awhile perhaps we could…" his voice trailed off with silent invitation.

"I'm sorry, but I'm seeing someone." Stephanie looked over at Ranger. He folded his arms over his chest and watched the man's Adam's apple bob nervously.

Later in the evening back at Stephanie's apartment, she was smiling at Ranger. "You scared him."

"He wouldn't have suited you either."

She walked to the bedroom and kicked off her shoes. Changing out of her suit, into yoga pants and a large black shirt she seemed to swim in, she walked back out to the kitchen.

Ranger looked at her and smiled. "My shirt, babe?"

Stephanie looked down at the shirt. _RangeMan _was sprawled across the chest. She blushed as she walked to the fridge. "I took it with me to Europe. It smelled like you."

Ranger pinned her against the fridge. The kiss was soft at first but deepened. He felt her whole body moan and lean into him. Her arms circled around him, clinging to his back. His hands traveled down her body. His warm hands on her stomach made her quivery, but she pulled back. He braced himself against the fridge, still keeping her trapped in his arms.

"We should eat." She said breathlessly.

"Stephanie…" His voice was ragged. She could feel himself fighting not to take her.

Tears sprung unexpectedly into her eyes. "I can't, Ranger. I can't."

"I'm not Brett." He said.

She dropped her head and leaned it against his chest. "I know you're not." She was trembling. "I just…I feel…" Shaking her head, she broke out of his hold and hustled off to the bathroom. She locked the door. Leaning on the counter, she took several shuddering breaths to calm herself down. Every inch of her still wanted Ranger. He still wanted her as well, she felt it and knew it from asking, but she felt dirty because of Brett.

When she came back to the kitchen, Ranger was cooking dinner. Steamed rice and vegetables. It smelled good. She grabbed plates and set the table for them. Ranger filled the plates and held out a chair for Stephanie. She sat in it and looked up at him. He leaned down and kissed her. "Someday, babe."

…

Ranger and Stephanie arrived back at the mansion to find a very unusual sight. Elise had all the men sitting at a play set for tea. Ten men being dominated by a five year old girl. When they looked up at the two of them, they looked relieved to see someone else.

"What do you have for us?" Tank asked.

Ranger shook his head. "Nothing. Everything was smooth. No sightings, no nothing. Continue your tea party."

Stephanie laughed at the look of despair on the men's faces. Somehow she couldn't see any of them saying no to her.

Elise came to Ranger and tugged on his hand. "You come play too."

"I have some work to do. Sorry."

She looked up at him with big brown eyes and pouted. "Please? Uncle Ranger?"

Ranger fought not to give in, but he felt himself breaking. There was something about her that reminded him of Stephanie. Elise had wrapped around her arms around one of his legs and was giving him the most imploring look a five year old could.

"Please?" She tried again.

With a look of help sent to Stephanie, who raised her eyebrows and shook her head, he let Elise lead him to the table. She snickered as she quietly exited the room.

Stephanie took herself to the gym to work out a bit. Things had been tense with Ranger since she pulled away. She knew he wouldn't force himself on her and that he would wait until she was ready, but she didn't know when that would be. She wanted him, she wanted him badly. The feeling that Brett had left with her, dirty and violated, made her hesitant to get more physical with Ranger.

She kept herself down in the gym for a couple hours. Brett was winning. She knew that. By making her unwilling to give herself to the man she really loved more than anything, Brett was still holding power over her. It pissed her off and made her work harder. Everything about Ranger would make her forget what Brett did to her. She knew that. Just kissing him as intensely as she had in her apartment told her that. He could erase everything. She wanted to let him have her.

Finally calming herself down, she walked out of the gym. As she passed by her office she glanced in and saw Ranger sitting at his desk working away. Elise sat on one of his legs using an occupied part of the desk to color diligently. She paused and watched him for a moment. He looked comfortable, she thought, watching him. Whenever Elise leaned too far to one side, his arm snaked out and repositioned her to keep her from falling.

Ranger glanced up and saw Stephanie watching him. She smiled and ducked out of sight. He had managed to convince Elise to let the men go about their business. The compromise had been that she could come color in the office. It had seemed too easy when he agreed. It had been he realized when she walked in and crawled into his lap. Every time he tried to put her on the ground beside his desk, she got right back into his lap. He found it really difficult to say no to her.

His phone rang. "Yo."

He listened for several minutes then disconnected. "Elise, I have to go talk to Aunt Steph."

Elise got off his lap. "Ok, Uncle Ranger." She sat down on the floor with her coloring book and studiously continued to color.

Ranger left the room and found Stephanie stepping out of the shower. A towel was wrapped around her. "Babe, I got a call. I have to go for a couple weeks."

"Of course." She nodded. "Of course. You'll be careful?"

He strode forward until she was in his arms. "He won't touch me again. I'll be back soon." Ranger kissed her as deeply as he had in the apartment, but didn't push anything physical.

Stephanie sighed as she watched him pack a bag. She knew he would leave a few men with her, but it was nice having him in the room always watching her. Trying to protect her. It was good, she decided. He needed to do his job and she needed to do hers. She would see him when he returned.

She tried to blink back the tears that kept threatening and avoided eye contact with Ranger until she was calmed down. He gave her one last kiss and left to go talk to his men before leaving with a couple of them.


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: **Thanks for the reviews, everyone! Y'all lucked out that I had such a stressed out night at work that I just wanted to come home and write for a bit to put the day behind me! Hope y'all like this chapter!

Just like to play with them, don't own them!

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Stephanie came downstairs and found all the men making breakfast. She had spent the last several nights tossing and turning. It seemed that Ranger's hold on her really did make the bumps in the nights disappear. She had dreamt of Brett's attack on her. She had woken repeatedly shaking. That she was dreaming of it so much told her that her subconscious was aware that he was out of jail. _Which I could have told you,_ she told herself.

Elise was sitting on a counter watching all of them in avid interested. "What's that?" She asked every so often pointing at a different thing. Whoever happened to be standing next to her stopped and explained it.

"Morning, Sugar Plum." RJ nodded at her. She smiled and returned the nod.

"Bomber, if we put trackers on your car again, do you think you could keep from having them put in a bucket of water?" Tank asked.

"Sure." She nodded. "Any word?"

Tank nodded. "Mission ended. Should be home in a day or so."

"Okay. I have to go shopping." She picked up her keys. "I'll be back later."

"Can I go?" Elise asked looking at her.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but I have lots of boring things to do." Stephanie smiled apologetically. "But I bet Uncle Tank will take you to the toy store if you ask really nice."

Elise turned her attention to Tank. "Cheer Bear, can we please?"

"You have to ask your dad." He replied trying to find a way around it.

"We can all go!" Elise lit up. "Daddy! Daddy! We're going to the toy store!"

Mac walked into the kitchen. "Are we? When did that happen?"

"Aunt Steph said I had to ask Cheer Bear."

"Really." Mac turned and looked at Tank. "So, Grumpy Bear, you agreed to take a little girl to a toy store?"

"How bad can it be? Just let her pick out a couple toys."

Mac nodded. "Okay. We'll go to the toy store. You're buying."

"One toy isn't that expensive."

Stephanie chuckled as she grabbed her keys. "Not so fast, Bomber." She turned and faced Tank. He was holding up a stun gun and a panic button. "I don't care how bad ass you've turned, but you scare me less than Ranger if something happens."

"Alright." She smiled and took them. Depositing them in her purse, she left the house. If Ranger was going to be home soon, then there was a good reason to go shopping, she reflected as she drove down the road. It was time for Brett to not have any other affect on her. Not again.

…

Tank stood in front of the store with Elise dancing excitedly beside him. She was clinging to Mac's hand and jumping up and down. Many of the employees looked over at them nervously. Six big men and a tiny little girl in a toy store caused some discomfort. One of the managers ventured up to them.

"Excuse me, are you looking for her parents?"

"No, I'm her father." Mac said grinning. "Her uncles here wanted to buy her one single toy."

"One toy?" The manager looked back at all of them. She nodded. "Okay. Good luck."

"Let's go!" Elise exclaimed. Lester looked at her and chuckled.

"She reminds me of Bomber more and more." He said to Bobby.

"I'm getting that." Bobby nodded as they followed Elise.

All of them froze when they reached the Barbie isle. Tank looked at Seth. "It's pink."

"Yep."

Elise ran down the isle and grabbed a doll. She raced back to Tank. "This one!" Tank took it gingerly and held it. Elise was gone before he could say anything. Then she was back. "And this!"

Tank looked at her. "I said one toy."

Her eyes grew big. "But…Cheer Bear…"

Mac cocked his head at Tank. "How's this quest going for you?"

"Maybe we can just buy you one right now, and then later we can bring you back for another one." Lester suggested.

Elise sniffled. "But-but-but-but-but..." Her eyes filled.

"Shit." Lester muttered low enough for her not to hear. "What else do you want?"

Mac grinned at Elise ran away to find more toys. "I hope Ranger pays you well."

"I hope so too." Tank grumbled when he saw Elise begin piling up more and more toys. He was afraid of having to buy the store. He wondered if Ranger would be willing to add it to his budget.

…

Stephanie was surprised to see that she was home before the men were. Letting herself in, she took her bags upstairs and was busy putting them away when she heard car doors shutting. Heading back down to the foyer, her eyes widened as all the men walked in carrying boxes upon boxes.

Tank came in last kicking the door shut as he came in. Stephanie grinned at him. "One toy?"

"I…well, she…and then she…"Tank shrugged. "Think you could convince Ranger to put her in the budget?"

Bursting out laughing, she patted Tank on the back. "Just send him shopping with her once. I'm sure there will be after that."

Tank seemed to reflect on that. "Good idea."

The phone on Stephanie's hip rang. "Hello?"

"Yo."

"Batman." She smiled. "Your men have been completely whipped by a five year old."

"Really?"

"Yep. They took her shopping. For one toy." Stephanie giggled.

"I'm going to have to make a budget line for her, aren't I?"

"Probably. Or just start giving them extremely good bonuses." She walked away from Tank. "Tank said you'll be home soon. Your mission finished sooner than expected?"

"Yep. I'll be home tonight."

"Really?" Stephanie grinned. "I have some bumps in the night that could use some chasing away."

"I'll do what I can to help." Ranger disconnected, leaving Stephanie jittery and excited for the night.

"Tank," She called. "Ranger will be home tonight and I need you to make sure we're left alone."

"Too much info, Bomber." Tank shook his head. "I'll do what I can."

….

Ranger walked into the mansion. Everything was quiet. He looked in the main family room and found Seth, Lester, Bobby and Tank passed out. There were Barbie and Barbie paraphernalia surrounding them. He shook his head. He couldn't figure out how such a tiny thing could exhaust grown men like that. Mac and Elise were nowhere to be seen. He assumed Mac had convinced her to go to bed.

He turned and headed to Stephanie's room. He wanted nothing more than to see her. "Babe?"

"Ranger." She replied from the closet. "You have to sit on the bed." Raising an eyebrow he did as she said. "I bought you a present."

"A present?" Ranger repeated.

"Yes." Stephanie walked out of the closet in a silk robe that stopped at her mid thigh. She paused to turn off the lights. The light from the outside filled the room. "But you have to unwrap it." She stopped in front of him. He tugged on the ties of the robe. It fell to her sides to reveal a black lacy Bustier and a garter belt that held silk stockings in place on her thighs.

His eyes intensified as he met her eyes. "Babe." His voice was hoarse.

"Just love me, Ranger." She whispered bringing her lips to his.

He stood, kissing her deeply, tongue meeting hers teasingly. He pushed the robe off her shoulders, hands running down her arms. She shivered as his lips came to her neck. Stephanie tugged his shirt up, parting them briefly as it was thrown off. Her nails raked down his chest gently, earning a low moan from him.

Ranger knelt her back on to the bed. With a wicked grin, he unclasped the garter belt from her stockings. He slowly pulled off each one, kissing each ankle, knee, and when he came to her underwear he wasted no time in getting them off her. Ranger made her moan loudly as he pleasured her. Her hands thrown over her head, her back arched.

"Ranger!" She gasped. "Please!"

He was willing to take her over the edge, but wanted to go over with her. Stephanie felt everything dirty wash away from her. Every touch, every caress, every kiss undid what Brett had done. Feeling empowered, she kissed Ranger as she maneuvered them so she straddled him. She kissed her was down his chest, fingers working at his pants.

Once they were off, Ranger sat up as Stephanie took him into her. He groaned as he filled her. "I love you." He whispered in her ear. They moved together, loving each other. Moonlight cascaded into the room, bathing them in the soft light.

…

Elise padded along the hallway. Barbies were tucked in her arms. She wanted to play.

"Munchkin, where are you going?" Tank asked leaning against the wall.

"I want to play." She smiled, dimples flashing brightly.

"And where are you planning on playing?"

"I saw Uncle Ranger come home." Elise said innocently. "Maybe he wants to play."

_Oh, he's playing alright, _Tank thought. "Sorry, munchkin, but Uncle Ranger and Aunt Stephanie have their own game right now."

"What's going on?" Mac asked rubbing his eyes. He yawned as he looked down at his daughter. "Elise, why aren't you in bed?"

"I want to go play with Uncle Ranger, but Cheer Bear said Aunt Steph and Uncle Ranger are playing a game." She looked wide eyed at Tank. "Can I play too?"

"No!" Tank and Mac both said.

"What are they playing?"

"Uh…"

"Well…"

"There's a party going on here?" Lester asked as he came into the hall.

"What are Uncle Ranger and Aunt Steph playing?"

"Hide and Seek." Lester said.

"Why can't I play that? I'm good at hiding!" Elise turned and ran toward the bedroom.

"No!" The three men raced after her. Tank caught her first. "You're too little for this particular type of Hide and Seek."

"Why?"

"Because we said so." Mac said. "Time for bed."

"But!"

"No. Time for bed!" Lester said.

Tank carried her down the hall, dangling in his arms. She continued to protest. Mac and Lester hung back.

"Hide and seek?" Mac hissed.

"Did you want to tell her they're having sex?"

"She's never going to know what sex is!"

Lester nodded after a minute. "Yeah, we can work that. When she gets older, we'll just track her and if she goes somewhere we don't like, then we'll just kill the little bastard she's with."

"That sounds good." Mac agreed. "We all know how to dispose of a body. No one will miss the bastard."

…

They lay in each others arms. Soft kisses were exchanged. Hands continued to move along bodies, memorizing, claiming. Stephanie rested her head in the crook of his neck. "You're not tired are you?"

"Nope."

"Good." She smiled at him. "We're not finished."

Ranger gave a wolfish smile and rolled over on top of her.


	12. Chapter 11

**AN:** Your reviews are wonderful! I'm glad everyone is enjoying the story! Here is another chapter for your enjoyment! :-) Hope y'all like it!

I don't own them, I just play with them!

* * *

**Chapter 11 **

Sunlight streamed in casting a golden hue onto the two lovers. They were wrapped in each others arms, her face buried in his neck, his head resting on hers. A soft moan escaped her as one of his hands traveled up and down the length of her body, memorizing every part of her. Unconsciously one of her legs came and wrapped around his waist. With a deep growl in his throat, he moved and pinned her to the bed, catching her lips with his as he thrusted deep into her. Her arms slid up his back gripping his shoulders as they moved, taking each other to peak. Breaths came in shallow gasps.

"_Dios!" _Ranger groaned, spilling into her as she tightened around him crying out in ecstasy.

"Mmm." Stephanie smiled languidly.

"Babe." He rested his forehead on hers, continuing to keep her pinned down.

She kissed him softly. "Did I ruin you for other women?"

"The moment you walked into the diner you did." He replied. "But I'm thinking food is a necessity if we keep going."

They had barely slept. They had continuously woken the other up and made love. It had been one of the most rewarding nights either had had. They had given themselves to one another as intensely as they could. Stephanie felt rejuvenated and happily sated. She felt whole again. The look of peace in Ranger's eyes told her more than anything he could say.

"Breakfast sounds good." She stood crawled off the bed, heading for the shower. Looking over her shoulder at Ranger, she ginned wickedly and knew in moments he would be in the shower with her.

Finally emerging from the bedroom, they walked down to the kitchen to find it deserted. Stephanie hopped up on a counter and leaned back against the wall as she watched Ranger prepare breakfast. She wondered briefly if she'd be able to have him again before anyone woke up. He looked over at her and grinned when she licked her lips.

Before they could make any move, Elise came into the kitchen. Crawling up on a stool she stood on it, hands on hips and tried to look as intimidating as she could. "I'm mad at you!"

"Who, me?" Stephanie pointed to herself.

"Both of you." Ranger paused in cooking to look at her.

"What did we do, Munchkin?" He asked.

"You wouldn't let me play hide and seek with you!"

Stephanie blinked. "Come again?"

"Uncle Lester said you were playing hide and seek last night. Cheer Bear said I couldn't play with you. I'm really good at hide and seek!" She stomped her foot. "How come I couldn't play with you?"

Ranger and Stephanie looked at each other. They had clearly missed a conversation last night and had to figure out a way back into Elise's good graces. Ranger turned back to the stove and kept himself conveniently busy with the food. No way was he going to get caught doing something for Elise. He'd seen the way his men, _his men_, were being handled by Elise.

"Well…um…" Stephanie fumbled around for an answer. "There was a monster under my bed." When Elise's eyes widened, she nodded. "Uncle Ranger and I had to scare it, but it kept hiding from us. We didn't want it to get out of my room and come scare you."

"Did you hurt it?"

"Nope! Turns out it's a real friendly monster." Stephanie smiled. "It promised to go hide under Uncle Bobby's bed and to stay away from your bed!"

Elise looked like she was thinking about the monster very hard. Finally she nodded and sat down on the stool.

"Hungry, Munchkin?" Ranger set a plate of food in front of her. Eggs, toast and bacon, along with a cup of milk. Elise busied herself with eating, glancing up to see Ranger pause by Stephanie to give her a kiss. While she ate, she eyed an object that was slightly hidden by a fruit bowl. Reaching over as far as she could she pulled the object to her.

Frowning she punched buttons until she thought it was broken. She wondered what it did. It looked like it was supposed to pinch someone. Ranger was still standing in front of Stephanie whispering in her ear. She was smiling. Elise leaned over.

Stephanie looked up at the last second. "Elise, no!"

It was too late. Ranger hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Elise stared at him in shock. Stephanie was on the ground beside him. "Ranger! Oh, god, Ranger!"

"What's going on, Bomber?" Bobby walked in.

She turned and pointed at Elise and the object in her hand. "Get that out of here! Why would you leave a taser where a child could get it?"

Bobby took the taser from Elise, who looked at him like she was going to cry. "Did I hurt Uncle Ranger?"

"No, no." Bobby hugged her. "He needed it, don't worry."

"Ranger." Stephanie shook him. Bobby saw her shoulders hunched over. They were shaking.

"Um, Steph, I'm sure that it'll wear off." He caught the side of her face and saw the smile. He couldn't stop his own smile. Bobby had seen Stephanie tasered, Hal tasered, but he doubted any of them had ever seen Ranger tasered.

"Tell you what, Elise, why don't you go play with your toys for now." Bobby helped her off the stool. "You're not in trouble, okay?"

Elise ran out of the room as quickly as she could. Bobby leaned over. "You okay, Bomber."

Stephanie couldn't hold down the laughter. "She tasered him in the ass, Bobby. I never thought I'd see anyone take Ranger down, much less a five year old."

"He'll probably be glad it was in the ass and not somewhere more vital." Bobby chuckled.

Ranger was beginning to stir when Tank, Alex, RJ and Seth wandered in. They all looked like they had been in the gym. Stephanie helped him sit upright on the floor. "Are you alright?"

"What the hell happened?" He asked shaking his head.

"Elise tasered you in the ass." Bobby supplied. The eruption of laughter from the men had Stephanie grinning at Ranger. He was looking slightly dazed. She couldn't tell from what; getting tasered, or getting tasered in the ass by a five year old.

"Hey, Steph, this came for you." Hal said coming in holding a large manila envelope.

She took it from him as Ranger fought to stand up. He stood over her shoulder as she pulled out a large packet. It contained a series of photographs of her. And Ranger. She flipped through them. It started when they were in New York. They were walking together, his hand firmly on the base of her back. They were going to her apartment, then they were driving off. They were in a restaurant having dinner. He was kissing her outside the restaurant.

"Oh, god." She muttered as she continued to flip through them. The most recent were from last night. Her cheeks grew hot at the realization that someone had photographed them making love. There were a series of shots from the night. Someone had violated their intimacy.

"He's taunting us." Ranger said wrapping an arm around her. "He wants us to know we're being watched by him."

"Brett can't work a camera." Stephanie whispered, turning into him, holding the pictures away from the men's eyes. "He had someone else follow us. If he can't find the house, he knows someone who can take these and take them far enough where we wouldn't catch them."

"What do you need us to do?" Tank asked.

"Ask around." Ranger ordered. "Find out what you can from PI's, freelance photographers. You know the drill."

All the men nodded and left to get busy. Ranger pulled Stephanie away enough to look down at her. She looked like she wanted to cover herself up. "Babe."

"We can't stay prisoners in my house, Ranger." She said. "You have your job, I have mine."

"Then that's what we're going to do." He replied. "But we're also going to get a curtain rod in your room. I'm not going to stop making love to you because someone decided to make us his nude models for Kama Sutra."

Stephanie laughed dryly. "Only you."

…

She eyes the curtains. There were too many choices. She didn't like having to do this on her own. Ranger had snuck off somewhere when they got to the mall. Black, she decided. It would block out the sun and would fit Ranger just fine. Besides, Brett's photographer would have a hard time seeing through black curtains.

"Babe."

"Oh, you finally showed up?" She asked nonchalantly.

"You're still deciding?"

"Nope. I've decided." Grabbing the curtains she wanted, Stephanie walked to the cashier. "Where did you go?"

"I needed to get something." He looked at her as innocently as Ranger could.

She peaked around him. There was bag in his hand. He tried to hide it from her. "Ranger, what is that?"

"Nothing."

"Ranger."

"Babe."

"_Ranger!"_

"Babe."

After she paid, she cozied up close to him. Brushing his lips softly with hers, she said, "Please, Ranger."

"Not fair." He grumbled and pulled the package out from behind his back. It was a bag from the toy store.

"You too?" Stephanie laughed and shook her head. "Elise has all of you whipped."

"Speaking of which, why doesn't she have you whipped?" Ranger asked as they left the store.

"I have a sister and nieces." She replied. "I know the tricks."


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: **Again, everyone's reviews are wonderful! This chapter is sad, I cried a little bit writing it, but it had to be done.

I don't own them, I just play.

* * *

**Chapter 12**

"Okay, so we're a team." Lester said looking at each man. They were huddled around the island in the kitchen, heads drawn together, voices low. "We've all gotten along so far, but now we need to make sure the alliance stays strong. Most of us could cave since we all have separate loyalties to Ranger or Stephanie."

"Agreed." RJ nodded. "They'll understand it was for the greater good."

"Or just kill us." Bobby volunteered.

"Thanks for that optimism." Tank glared at him. He glanced over his shoulder to see if they were being watched. So far they were safe.

"None of us can break." Mac said quietly. "Once this goes down we're going to have to maintain this for the rest of our lives. Even under pain of death."

"Understood." Hal said. "But what happens if we fail?"

"Failure is not an option." Tank hissed. "We're Range Men. And they're…" He looked at Alex. "What does Stephanie call you?"

"Merry Men 2.0"

"We're Range Men and Merry Men 2.0." Tank continued. "We're trained not to fail."

"This is different than anything we've faced before!" Bobby growled. "I'd rather face terrorists."

"Man up." RJ snapped quietly. "This is life or death."

"Okay. Okay." Mac nodded. "We're ready?"

"Yep. This is for the greater good."

The seven men turned and faced the curly-haired girl with large doe eyes holding a make up bag. Mac spoke first. "No, Elise."

"But…why?" She asked.

"We're men. We don't wear make up." He told his daughter firmly.

"You'll look pretty."

"We don't look pretty. We look like men." Mac said.

All of them looked down at her firmly. Her eyes seemed to get bigger and she clutched the make up bag harder. She walked up and hugged her father around the knees. "Please, daddy?"

"N-No." Mac swallowed.

"Life or death, man." Lester growled at him, trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"Pretty please?"

"I said no, Elise."

Elise sniffled slightly. "Ok." She said softly and walked out of the kitchen head hanging down as Ranger and Stephanie walked in.

Ranger looked at her then back at the men who were holding themselves so rigidly upright that he was sure one poke would knock them down like dominos. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." They all answered at once.

"Tank." Ranger barked out knowing he would listen to that tone of voice.

"Nothing." Tank said avoiding eye contact.

"Boys." Stephanie planted her hands on her hips. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Was the unanimous reply.

The two of them eyed the men carefully before leaving the kitchen. "Whatever it was," Stephanie said as they walked down to the gym, "must be bad enough that they won't crack to tell us."

"More like they had to grow a backbone with Elise."

"Yeah. Hey, maybe you should've joined them on that mission." She teased.

Back in the kitchen all of them were still standing in place. Lester let out a breath. "Shit. That was hard."

"If she had hugged my legs, I would've cracked." Seth admitted. "Like an egg."

"Good thing she took to you first." Tank clapped Mac on the back.

"Does this mean we're not in her control anymore?" Hal asked.

"No." Mac shook his head. "It just means we have a temporary victory."

"How long will we have to fight for victory?" Alex asked.

"The rest of our lives." All of them shuddered. Someone produced whiskey and in moments they were all throwing back shots to give them back their edge.

"Don't tell Lula." Tank said suddenly. "She finds out Elise has this hold, she'll use it against me forever."

"Don't tell Lula? Don't tell Lula?" Lester shook his head. "Fuck man, this is going to my grave."

All of them nodded and toasted to that and threw back another shot. Mac sighed and set down his shot glass. He left the kitchen to go look in on his daughter. He found her sitting on the floor in Stephanie and Ranger's office by a window coloring in a coloring book.

She looked up at him. "Hi, daddy."

"Hi, sweet heart." Mac walked over and crouched down beside her. "I have to do some work today, so I'll be a bit busy around the house. I want you to stay here, okay?"

"Okay, daddy."

Mac smiled and kissed her on top of the head. "Love you, little girl."

"Love you too, daddy." Elise smiled brightly at him, making him love her even more.

He left her in the office knowing it was safe for her to be in there. The security system RangeMan had installed included monitors in the most of the rooms. The office, the family rooms, the kitchen, gym, garage, backyard, everything but bedrooms had cameras monitoring them. If Elise left the room, whoever was in charge of the security today would know where she went if they needed to find her.

It gave him peace of mind knowing there were so many people looking after her. When he had been at court hearing every damning piece of evidence against his ex wife he had felt his blood boiling. She had no maternal instinct and he hated that he had had to fight for so long to get full custody. He was thankful that Stephanie had gotten her lawyer to look into it.

The next few hours had him working on the computers in the house. He was good with computers, one of the best, which was why Tresdale had hired him. Between Ranger's security and Mac's knowledge of computers and the software, they'd be able to keep Brett out for a long time. Hopefully long enough for them to catch him before he acted again.

Mac stopped after a bit realizing he was missing a couple parts he needed for one of the computers he was building. He walked across the hall to where Tank was overlooking security. "I need to go to the store, can you keep an eye on Elise?"

"Sure."

The ride out was simple and quiet. He was relieved not to see any sign of Brett. It wouldn't end well. Whenever he left the house, he had gotten into the habit of wearing his gun on him again. The store was relatively deserted when he arrived. Moving quickly, and ignoring the offers of help he was receiving from many of the employees, he found what he was looking for and paid.

He never heard the shots that hit him in the back when he reached the car. He hit the ground as a shadowy figure crossed his path. A foot planted itself on his chest holding him down. "Mac, you're going to deliver a message for me."

…

Stephanie's phone was going off the hook. She ran across the hall and snatched it up off the table. "Yes, hello?"

She listened to the other end, her heart beat racing. She could feel the blood draining out of her face, could hear it roaring in her ears. "I'll be there."

Stephanie turned and saw Tank watching her. "What's up?"

"Watch Elise." Was all she said as she ran out of the house.

How she got to the hospital, she had no idea, but as she ran through the hall, all she could think of was Mac. "Excuse me, I'm here for Mac Donahue." She said breathlessly.

The nurse gave her a sympathetic look. "He's in ICU. It doesn't look good for him." She took Stephanie down the hall.

Mac looked terrible, she thought walking to the bedside. He had tubes sticking out of him. His breath was coming shallow. His right arm had a bandage around it. Gently she took his hand. Mac opened his eyes. "Steph."

"Mac, what happened?"

"Brett." He wheezed. "Fucker took me by surprise." Mac looked at Steph sadly. "I just got her, Steph. I'm going to lose her."

"Hush, you'll be home in no time." Stephanie hurried to reassure him, smiling as best as she could.

He shook his head. "No. No I'm not." He squeezed her hand. "Take the bandage off my arm. He left a message."

She hesitated for a moment, then took off the gauze. His right arm had the word _TRAITORS _carved into him. "Oh, God! Mac!"

"This time it was me he was after." Mac whispered. "He's pissed that none of the men are on his side."

"Mac."

"Stephanie. You can't let her mother get her back." Mac said fiercely. "That's all I want. I want her to be loved."

"When you get home—"

"I know I'm not leaving, Steph. Just promise me her mother will never get her hands on her again."

"I promise."

"Thank you." He smiled.

And then he flat lined.

….

Stephanie was barely aware of how she managed to drive herself home. Brett hadn't sent a message to her, she realized as she walked into a dark house. He was sending a message to all the men who had followed her. His fury didn't stop with not being able to get her. It continued all the way to them.

And now she had to tell a little girl her father was never coming home.

"Bomber?" Tank appeared in the hall.

She gave him a teary eyed shake of the head and walked to her own room. She bit her lip to keep the tears from coming. The moment she was in her room she leaned back against the door. Mac had been a wonderful man, a great friend, a loving father. Stephanie started shaking. He had had his life ahead of him, finally having his daughter and having a way to love and support Elise.

An agonized cry came out of her as she dropped to her hands and knees. Sobs shook her body violently as tears came down in waves. Strong arms picked her up and carried her to the bed. Held her while she cried. Rocked her gently and soothingly.

Hours passed before she was able to turn to look at Ranger. He cupped her face gently. "I know."

"He's after them too." She whispered, and explained what had been on Mac's arm. "How do I protect everyone, including myself? Wouldn't it be easier to just give myself to him?"

"No."

"No one else would die."

"No." Ranger held her tightly. "Brett is not the leader his grandfather was. The men would have left him anyway. He's angry because he sees the leader you have become and that they trust you. You won't give up. I won't give up. We'll see him dead before anyone else gets hurt."

Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. "Oh, god, Ranger. I have to tell Elise." With that thought a new onslaught of tears broke through.

…

The funeral had been quiet and solemn. Everyone wore black. The skies seemed join their grief with grey clouds and soft rain. Elise stood between Ranger and Stephanie holding their hands as the Lord's Prayer was read. Both of them had sat down to tell her the heartbreaking news. She seemed to understand and had become attached to Ranger and Stephanie. While she continued to sleep in her own bed, someone always had their door open in case she needed anything. All the men had stepped up to helping take care of Elise more than they had been.

Stephanie's lawyer had gone to the funeral and was now sitting with her in her office. Ranger sat at his own desk watching Stephanie carefully. She had kept her emotions boiled down coolly. She was holding a brave face on for Elise. At night she grieved for the loss of her friend. Ranger simply held her throughout.

"Marcus, I'm sorry to seem rude, but I don't understand why you had to see me today." Stephanie said, sounding sullen.

"I know it's probably a bad time," Marcus said, "but this has to do with Elise."

"She'll be going to the next of kin," Stephanie assumed. "Not her mother."

"Actually, there is no next of kin. Her mother's parents disowned her when she was seventeen." Marcus said. "Mac's parents died some years ago. He joined the Army afterward."

"Then where is she going?" Stephanie looked confused.

"You."

"Me?"

"The day we won full custody over Elise, Mac asked me to write up a will for him. In it he states that if anything happens to him, you're to be Elise's legal guardian." Marcus told her. "If you're unable to do it—"

"I'll do it." Stephanie interrupted.

"Are you sure you're up for this? It's a big step."

"Marcus, Mac wanted Elise to be loved. Surprising as it seems, there is a whole lot of love for her in this house."

Marcus nodded. "I had a feeling you'd be up to it. You're a good woman, Stephanie. I enjoying working for you. I'm very sorry for the loss of Mac. He was a good man."

"Yes." Stephanie said turning from him and looking out the window. He was a good man. Brett would pay dearly for the harm that had come to the family unit that had evolved here.


	14. Chapter 13

**AN**: I don't own them, I just play.

Thanks for all the reviews! They make me smile :-)

* * *

**Chapter 13**

They had set down rules. No one was to go out alone, always in pairs. If Brett was going to attack, then he would have to deal with two people. They mixed up the men so Brett would always have to deal with a RangeMan. If he was going to make life hell for them, they would return the favor if he attacked. So far they assumed he was working alone. Tank had found the private eye who had been hired to photograph Stephanie and Ranger. He had been told that he would be paid a large fee if he followed them. The transaction had been done over the phone. He was able to describe the voice, and Stephanie identified it as Brett.

There had been some house rules laid down as well. Weapons, when not being worn by a person were all locked away. Someone was near Elise at all times. There was always someone home at night when it was time for her to be in bed. The men had taken to protecting her like she was their own. More than once, men had been found sleeping on the couch at night with Elise curled into them.

Stephanie stretched out in bed. Glancing at the clock she saw it was five fifteen in the morning. She sighed. A few years ago she would have grumbled and found a way back to sleep. Now, she was used to getting up this early. Ranger was in the shower. Flipping on a lamp, she got out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. Moving quickly, she brushed her teeth, did her makeup and was out of the bathroom before Ranger. He cornered her in the large walk in closet.

"Morning." He kissed her breathlessly.

"Morning."

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't. I woke me." She replied as she continued dressing. "I have to go do some work today. Cabin fever is going to send me straight up a wall."

They had all agreed to continue their daily lives as much as possible. So long as they stuck to the rules, there wasn't much more they could do until Brett made another move. The last few weeks had been quiet. Stephanie knew Brett was not a strong strategist and it would take him time before he was willing to make another move. Especially if he had any idea of the reaction he had caused when he murdered Mac. Despite the urge to murder him, she knew for the moment they were relatively safe.

Ranger and Stephanie left the bedroom and found Elise sitting at the dinning room table patiently eating cereal. Ranger raised an eyebrow. "Munchkin, what are you doing awake?"

"Going to work."

"Where are you going to work?" Stephanie asked.

"With you."

Stephanie's heart swelled. "Oh, honey, that's sweet but you can't go."

"I have to."

"Why?"

"Because the bad man might get you." Elise looked up at them. She had been relatively quiet. Stephanie and Ranger hadn't told her the actual events that lead up to her father's death.

"Bad man?" Stephanie repeated.

"I was under Uncle Bobby's bed and heard him with Uncle Lester. They said a bad man was trying to hurt you."

They exchanged a look. They had told the men not to talk about Mac's murder in front of Elise. It looked liked they would need to be extra careful now.

"Okay, you can come to work with me." Stephanie said.

"Why were you under Bobby's bed?" Ranger asked.

"I was trying to scare the monster out. I didn't want Uncle Bobby to get scared." Elise said and went back to eating. Stephanie smiled up at Ranger.

…

She watched Elise run carefully around. Every so often she would trip and her dress would end up around her waist. "Elise, don't you have any jeans?"

"No."

"No?" Stephanie looked surprised. She had had jeans when she was a kid. If Elise was going to run around with the energy she had it would be better for her to have jeans. She decided she would take Elise shopping after lunch.

A couple of clients came in. Elise sat quietly by a window with a coloring book. They would have to make sure to buy an endless supply of coloring books, Stephanie thought. It seemed to be the only outlet for Elise when she knew she had to behave. Her clients were charmed by Elise and quickly bought the offered artworks that remained. In the back of Stephanie's mind she was knew opening a trust fund for Elise would be a good idea. She was not going to let Elise suffer if anything happened to her. In fact…

"Hi, Marcus." Stephanie said when he answered the phone. "Can you pop by for a few minutes? I need to talk to you."

Marcus worked a couple buildings over. He arrived momentarily and smiled at Elise who ran out of the office. One of Stephanie's workers smiled at her and took Elise to the kitchen to get her a cookie.

"What can I do for you Stephanie?" Marcus asked.

"I need to adjust my will." She answered. "With Mac's passing, I want to make sure Elise is looked after if something should happen to me."

"That's fast." He looked impressed. "Luckily, I hoped it had something to do with your will and brought it with me." He pulled it out of his briefcase. "Alright, so do you want her going to your sister?"

"No. I want her going to Carlos Manoso." Stephanie replied.

Marcus looked startled. "Usually it's family."

Stephanie gave him a completely blank look that was worthy of one from Ranger. "Usually. This is not a usual case."

"No, that's true."

"You're aware of the situation with Brett. John told me you were the best, so as far as I'm concerned, you'll make sure Elise goes to Carlos if something happens." She said firmly.

"Carlos Manoso." Marcus wrote the name down with a couple notes. He sighed and leaned back. "Stephanie, with the situation with Brett, are you concerned that if things get uglier that something will happen to you?"

"Do I think he'll kill me, you mean?" Stephanie shook her head. "Not for a long time. If he gets the chance, he'll make me suffer first."

Marcus folded his hands under his chin. "Stephanie, I say this as a friend, both for you and for John Tresdale. Are you sure it's a good idea to keep yourself in the open like this?"

"Yes. Brett isn't going to make me hide like a criminal." Stephanie's face hardened. "I won't lose to him. Not this time."

He smiled at her. "Good for you." He stood. "I'll get this taken care of and have the paperwork brought back over in a few days for you to sign and make it official."

"Thanks, Marcus." Stephanie smiled and saw him to the door. She looked past him and saw Ranger walking down the hall with Elise. Elise was slowly munching on a cookie with one hand. Her other hand was firmly in Ranger's. "Well, what are you doing here?"

"Thought you might like some lunch. I brought sandwiches." Ranger looked at Marcus as he walked passed. "Legal issues?"

"Hm? No." She took the bag from him. The three of them sat at a round table by the window and began eating. "Just needed to update some things."

Marcus walked back in. "Stephanie, I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you have a contact number for Carlos Manoso so we can get a hold of him if needed?"

Ranger's eyes cut to Stephanie. He looked at Marcus and gave him the number. When the lawyer left, he faced her again. "What is he going to get a hold of me for?"

"Just taking precautions." She answered flicking her eyes toward Elise then back to him. He nodded after a moment. The rest of lunch was spent in silence.

Ranger's beeper went off. He looked at it then stood. "Have to go, babe." He kissed her, ruffled Elise's hair then left.

Stephanie looked at Elise. "Elise, do you want to go shopping?"

"For what?"

"I thought you might like some jeans." She said. "You can run around a lot more in them."

"Okay."

"Elise, we have to have a serious talk." Stephanie pulled her into her lap after a moment. "About the bad man. He isn't going to hurt _you_."

"I don't want him to hurt you."

"I know sweetie." She kissed the top of Elise's head. "But I want you to promise me something. If anything does happen, I want you to be brave, okay?"

"Okay."

"You know Uncle Ranger will take care of you, and all your other uncles will make sure nothing happens to you."

Elise wrapped her arms around Stephanie. "I love you, Aunt Steph."

"I love you too, sweetheart."

….

They had had a successful run in the mall, Stephanie thought as she walked Elise back to the car. They had gotten her several pair of jeans and shorts so she would be a little more comfortable when she played. She had a feeling Mac had been looking at his daughter as a little princess who would wear nothing but dresses. If she was going to be in a house full of men looking at her like she was porcelain then Stephanie knew she would have to make sure they knew Elise was not made of porcelain.

Stephanie opened the door at the back of the SUV and loaded their bags into it. She was settling them and closing the door when she heard, "Hello, Stephanie."

She turned and faced Brett. He held a gun straight at her. She couldn't make a move with it aimed at her. He motioned to her waist. "Put your gun on the ground."

Stephanie didn't move. Brett narrowed his eyes and swung the gun to aim at Elise. "Now!"

_Fuck, _she thought and slowly pulled the gun from her waistband. She set it on the ground. Brett was grinning. He had the upper hand in the moment and they both knew it. Stephanie wouldn't do a thing that could endanger Elise. In the back of her mind she was glad to know that she had taken Ranger's SUV this afternoon. He would expect them to pick him up from RangeMan. If they didn't show he would know something was wrong.

"You're going to come with me." Brett said calmly.

"No." She said. Brett glared at her and cocked the gun at Elise. Stephanie held her hands up in surrender. "Alright! Alright!" She walked closer to Brett. If she could distract him, she could disarm him probably.

"Sorry, Stephanie, but you don't get to run away this time." He reached to the back of his pants and pulled out a taser gun. Stephanie never had a chance to react when he pressed it to her.

"Aunt Steph!" Elise shrieked. Brett turned to her but Elise ran off. She remembered Stephanie's words of being brave, but running seemed to be a good idea. She ran between cars.

Brett cursed slightly as he lost sight of the girl. Then smiled down at the unconscious woman at his feet. He had won.


	15. Chapter 14

**AN: **I don't own, I just play! Hope you enjoy the chapter.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 14**

Elise ran into the mall. She was going to be brave. She would find someone who knew Uncle Ranger. The bad man had gotten Aunt Steph. She kept walking, unsure of where to go.

"Excuse me, where are your parents?" A tall man knelt down in front of her. She stared at him.

"Do you know my Uncle Ranger?" Elise asked.

"Uncle Ranger?" The man blinked at her. "Jesus, you're Ranger's niece?" He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "It's Morelli. You've got a niece here at the mall looking for you." He listened for a moment, then held the phone out to Elise.

"Hello?"

"Elise, where's Aunt Steph?" Ranger asked.

"Gone." She whispered in a quivering voice.

"I want you to stay with Morelli until I get there. Give the phone back to Morelli." Elise handed the phone back to Morelli. Joe took it and listened to Ranger's instructions. He hung up and looked down at Elise. "Elise do you want some ice cream?"

She looked up at him and nodded.

Ranger found them in the food court. Joe was sitting across from her watching her eat a small ice cream cone. He could feel his heart sigh with relief seeing Elise unharmed, while the feral beast inside him was roaring to find Brett and Stephanie and kill him.

"Elise."

Elise gave him her full attention. Tears filled her eyes and her chin quivered, but she didn't start crying. She was going to be brave just like Aunt Steph told her to. When Ranger sat beside her she crawled into his lap.

Joe sat there staring at the image in stark amazement. He had always thought Ranger was a nut, but seeing the protective way he held Elise made him realize that Stephanie had always been right that there was more to Ranger than anyone knew.

"What happened, Elise?" Ranger asked.

"Bad man got Aunt Steph." She whispered. "She told me to be brave."

"You were very brave." He said soothingly. "Very brave."

…

Stephanie opened her eyes groggily. She tried to move. As her vision cleared she found herself tied to one of the "oh shit" handles on the car. Her hands were tied above her head and her ankles tied. She was in the back of a station wagon. Windows were painted black and Brett was driving down the road, calmly, as though he hadn't kidnapped her and left a little girl stranded.

"You know he'll kill you, right?" Stephanie said calmly.

"He can't touch me."

Stephanie laughed. "Oh, you're so delusional it's almost cute. Ranger will rip you apart for taking me."

"Ranger. Ranger. Ranger." Brett scoffed. "What kind of name is Ranger? What's his real name?"

She stayed quiet, realizing then and there that if she did find a way to get away from Brett, she had an easy alias. The desire to laugh again was overwhelming.

"What's so damn special about him? Hmm?" Brett demanded. "I could have given you the world."

"You _raped _me!" She yelled.

"You were being stubborn. You would have had a life of leisure, with no worry about anything. Instead all you talked about was how you missed Ranger. Ranger who was better than the cop." Brett looked at her in the rearview mirror and sneered. "Ranger who I shot."

"He heals fast." She snarled. "I don't want a life of leisure. I didn't want you and I sure as hell haven't changed my mind."

"You will." He said calmly.

"I won't."

"Of course, you'll have to be punished for letting Ranger touch you." Brett picked up speed. Stephanie had a feeling he was a speeder when he was angry. "How could you?"

"I gave him something I'll never give you." She replied calmly.

"I can't even begin to tell you how angry I am with you for doing that." Brett said. She could feel madness radiating off him. "When I was in jail I realized we were meant to be."

"Meant to be what?"

"Together." He looked at her. "You have more resilience than any other woman I've had."

"We're not going to be together. You're a fucking nut. No wonder John didn't like you." She growled.

Brett slammed on the brakes. He got out of the car and walked to the back. Opening it, he reached in and hit her. She gasped at the pain. She could block his attacks from her face, but it didn't stop him from hitting her in the stomach, legs, her chest. She felt the wind rush out of her.

"You'll learn to behave." He snarled and slammed the door shut.

"Like hell I will." She wheezed as he walked back around to get in the car.

The next few hours were spent driving in silence. Stephanie tugged at the ropes on her wrists. They cut into her skin breaking it, causing little trickles of blood. She sighed and sagged down. She couldn't even feel her arms at this point. She wanted to kill Brett. She had been stupid to go to the mall without someone else. She had gotten cocky that he would bide his time longer, that he was stupid. Now she was hog tied in the back of his car, assuming it was his car. All she could do was hope that Elise had been found and was safely with Ranger.

"I'm hungry." She announced.

"Tough. We're not stopping."

"You have to stop sometime to get gas. The least you could do is get me a salad."

"No."

"I need—"

"You need to shut up!" He yelled swerving the car as he turned back to look at her.

_Ok, that's a bad way to handle it, _she thought. She would have to consider another tactic. _What would Ranger do? Ranger!_

…

_Ranger!_

Ranger's head snapped up. He could have sworn he just heard Stephanie's voice in his head.

"Steph's resilient." Tank said quietly. "She'll survive and come back to us."

They were sitting in Elise's room. There was a soft nightlight glowing from the wall. Ranger had sat there watching her sleep for the last couple hours. Darkness had crept around by the time he had brought Elise home. She had shown a lot of courage and had cried very little. Brett had to have terrified her, but she had listened to Stephanie when she told Elise to be brave.

Tank had found him sitting there. He was quickly apprised of the situation. Tank knew Ranger would kick himself for not sticking to Stephanie like glue, for not having Stephanie work at RangeMan or working at her office.

"We'll get her back, boss."

Ranger didn't respond and Tank left him alone in the room. He continued to watch Elise sleep. In her tiny little hand she clutched something metal. Leaning forward he gently took it out of her hand. It was a pair of dog tags. They had Mac's name on them. He sighed as he looked down at her. He left the room for a moment, returning with his own dog tags from his days in the military. He added his own to her chain and tucked them back into her hand.

"We'll get her back, Munchkin," He whispered and kissed the top of her head. Settling back into the chair, he watched her as he plotted.

…

They had driven all night and day. Stephanie ached. She had baited him even more, her temper snapping, and had briefly managed to kick out at him before he had beaten her again. If she could get her hands free…

Brett had only pulled over to get gas. They were pulled over now. She tugged at the rope. There was a pop. Stephanie looked up. The handle was coming off. She had fought with it every time she had been conscious. She grinned. There was something wonderful about crappy cars. If Brett had forced her into the SUV there would have been no way for her to get out of this, but the station wagon was old and she could wiggle herself free maybe. She had no idea where she was, but she was sure she could find a way to a safe place.

Brett was back in the car driving again. Stephanie sat still to avoid giving him the knowledge that she had started to break free. Unaware of how long they had continued to drive, she was surprised when he finally pulled over. She couldn't see out of the windows, even the front one. Dark had fallen.

Opening the back of the car, Brett held the stun gun. She glared at him as he spoke. "You can't be trusted right now my dear."

"Son of a—"

…

Stephanie woke to find herself tied to a bed. A wave of fear washed over her as she looked down to make sure she was still dressed. "Thank god," She breathed seeing herself completely covered. Her feet were still tied together, but she had more mobility she figured.

A small lamp showed as a plate of food sitting on the nightstand. Bread and water. She rolled her eyes. No way was she going to give him the satisfaction of eating, despite the attempt to make him stop the previous day.

"Ah, I see you're awake." Brett stepped into the room. He flipped on the over head light. Stephanie blinked hard against the light. She looked around the room. Her jaw slowly dropped. She recognized this as one of John's estates. She hadn't been to this one, but was under obligation to sell it. She couldn't place the location, but she had seen pictures of it.

She was tied to a metal bed frame. She tugged but nothing moved. Sweat came in beads across her forehead. She was beginning to panic. _No! _She thought violently toward herself. _You will remain calm. You will not break. You WILL NOT give up!_

"What do you think of your room?"

Silence.

"You can't ignore me forever."

Silence.

"Stephanie. You know I'll only have to teach you a lesson if you don't behave."

More silence.

Brett's anger boiled over. He stalked over to Stephanie, who turned her face away from him. He grabbed her chin and slapped her hard enough that she slammed her head into the metal frame. Stars were dancing in her eyes. She kept herself quiet, blinked away tears, refusing to give into the pain.

When he grabbed her legs, she moved, kicking out with both of them, hitting him in the groin. Brett gasped and was on the floor for a minute. Stephanie was trying to get as far as she could away from him on the bed. He recovered and instantly grabbed her by the hair yanking her head back. She glared at him.

"This is all mine." He said grabbing at one of her breasts painfully. "He won't touch you again."

"No." She snapped. Brett tried to grab her again, but Stephanie kicked out again. He stumbled back and gripped his face. Blood was trickling down from his nose. He was breathing heavy. Stephanie didn't know how angry he was, but she knew that unless something happened soon, it was going to turn into a kill or be killed situation between the two of them. She didn't have Ranger's training and had a feeling she would be the killed.


	16. Chapter 15

**AN: Thanks for the reviews everyone! They're wonderful! This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but pretty climactic nonetheless. There is a little thing about the distance away from where Stephanie is at with Brett that might not make sense, but in the next couple chapters it'll make sense. I don't own them, I just play. Enjoy them!**

**

* * *

**

Chapter 15

The house was quiet. Everyone was sitting sullenly around the dinner table. Ranger informed them they would all be there or they would all be with him on the mats the next morning. With Stephanie captured it was making them all worried and twitchy.

RJ gave a small smile as he glanced around. He enjoyed getting to know the side of Stephanie that had died after Brett's attack, but he doubted the men really knew the new side of her. RJ's smile got bigger as he watched Seth absently flip a knife around in his hand.

"Careful, Seth, Sugar Plum better not know that's here." RJ warned.

Seth gave a bark of laughter. "Damn straight she doesn't. I wouldn't let her touch my throwing knives to save my life."

"Destroy them, did she?" Bobby asked his attention wandering over.

Alex snorted. "No. She wanted to learn how to thrown knives. RJ got a dummy and showed her how to do it. She hit her target. Right in the groin. Every knife kept landing in the groin area. After that we avoided her like the plague till John made us go back out and train her."

"And all the knives in the house were hidden from her when she was angry." Seth laughed. "Brett better hope he doesn't have any knives where he's got her.

"I hope he does though." RJ said. "He's insane…but she's pissed."

"Does Brett have any of the training that Bomber does?" Tank wanted to know.

Alex shook his head. "Some, but he was never driven to learn to fight the way she was. He was happy trying to squander away his trust fund." He chuckled suddenly. "The day we tied her up to a chair just to get a breather was…well, epic."

The men who had been there for that moment started laughing hard. When they calmed down, Seth explained to Ranger's men, "We had all been training hard. To this day I can't figure out where she got all the energy from. Probably needed an outlet from all the sugar she'd given up. John tried talking to her to give us a break, we tried wearing her out to give us a break, but she wasn't stopping.

"Finally we ambushed her one morning in the kitchen. Took us about thirty minutes to get her to a chair and tie her up."

"She was pissed." Alex picked up the story leaning back in his chair grinning at the ceiling. "We had one of the maids take all of the knives and hide them until we said it was safe. Steph just sat there muttering under her breath."

"Cursing you?" Tank asked, intrigued.

"Nope. She just kept saying WWRD over and over. RJ asked her what it meant and she said What Would Ranger Do? So we asked what Ranger would do. She glared at us even harder and shouted "Ranger wouldn't be in the chair because he's fucking Batman and would have already taken all of you out!" John came in a few minutes later and took one look at what we had done then turned and left. He said he wasn't getting in the middle and from the little bit he knew of her temper, he was just not going to tempt fate."

Everyone was laughing. Ranger's lips were twitching. All of them could envision Stephanie acting that way. Lester asked, "Did you ever let her off the chair?"

"Nope." RJ shook his head in disbelief. "We all left her there for the morning. When we came back she was missing. We didn't see her until the next morning. John gave us a dire warning that she was up to something. I don't think any of us slept that night."

"I sure as hell didn't." Seth shuddered. "She gave us a nice evil grin the next morning. To this day I'm still nervous when I piss her off."

The doorbell rang and Stephanie's real estate agent was let in. He looked around nervously at all the intimidating men looking at him. He cleared his throat. "I, um, I'm looking for Stephanie Plum."

"She's unavailable at the moment." Ranger said. "What can I do for you."

"I'm sorry it's about one of the estates she's selling."

The men locked eyes with each other. It hit them all at once. Within moments the real estate agent was staring as chaos erupted through the house.

….

She had been in the house with Brett for three days. Her wrists were raw from fighting with the rope. She was struggling to maintain her calm. She knew she could beat him. She _had _to win. There were things she had to tell Ranger. Things she had hidden from but now she knew she wanted to be completely open with him about everything just as she had been before she'd gone to Europe.

Brett had left the previous day. She was glad that he was gone. It gave her a chance to try breaking free. Her whole body ached, but she was fighting past the pain. She slid off the bed and turned so she could stand. It felt good to stand. Most of the time she was curled up doing her best to fight off Brett.

She leaned back away from the bed and pulled. John had taken care of his estates, she knew that, but this bed was old, creaky and was loose at the top of the metal head board. Her hands turned purple from pulling, but Stephanie saw her left hand start sliding under the rope.

Tears of triumph glistened in her eyes as she felt herself pulling harder. She could do this. Her left hand slid free, the rope whipped around the headboard and Stephanie found herself sitting flat on the floor.

"Yes!" She whispered-cheered. She had gotten out of the rope. She was going to succeed. She untied the rope from her other wrist and got the rope around her ankles undone. Inside she was cheering elatedly as she realized she was going to win. If they were going to do this dance, she was going to lead and she wasn't going down.

Stephanie crept out of the room carefully looking around to see if Brett was back. Nothing. With a small sigh of relief she kept walking through the house looking for a working phone. Nothing. It made sense, she thought trying to put herself in Brett's twisted mind. No way for them to trace it back to here.

While Brett was gone, all she could do was just get out. As badly as she wanted to keep fighting him, she could tell that she was in no condition to fight him. He had been violent with his beatings. Her side ached from a knife wound that had come into the picture. When she had refused to show any pain from his fists, he had used a knife. It had only succeeded a little. She was losing more blood since she was up and moving.

Seeing the alarm system on the wall, she punched in the numbers and ran out of the house. She couldn't see anyone near, but she was running just the same. At this moment she was glad she had been trained more so. She could run for long periods of time now.

So she ran.

She stayed off the roads, and almost cried when she saw the city come into view. She kept going until she could find a hospital. She had know idea what city she was in but it was small and the hospital was found quickly.

Staggering into the ER she came to the front desk. "I need medical attention now."

The nurse working the station looked up at her and gasped. She called for help and with the help of several nurses they got her onto a stretcher, they were already ripping off her shirt to get to the knife wound, taking in the beatings her body was showing.

"Honey, who do you want us to call?" A nurse asked.

"Carlos…Manoso." She wheezed as they put an oxygen mask over her face. She struggled to get the phone number out. "I'm his wife."

"Did he do this to you?"

"No. Someone else." With that she passed out.

…

"Yo." Ranger answered his phone as he drove down the road.

"Carlos Manoso?"

"Who's asking?"

"This is Nurse Hetterly from St. Paul's Hospital in Lyle." The lady on the phone said. "I'm calling in regards to your wife, Stephanie Manoso."

His heart stopped. "What happened?" He listened as she listed the injuries Stephanie was suffering from. His vision blurred into an angry hazy as he drove faster. Lyle was only a few hours away.

Hanging up the phone he called the other cars following him and gave everyone an update. There was a collective cheer among the cars knowing Stephanie was alive and would recover from her injuries. Ranger felt the predator inside him crawling out. He would go see his lover. Kiss her and then he would go hunting.


	17. Chapter 16

**AN: Your reviews are always well received! Thanks to all of you who are reading the story! I don't own them, I just like to play.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 16**

Stephanie woke to a splitting headache. Her eyes squinted against the bright light of the room she was in. She struggled to figure out where she was against the aching throb. She saw a nurse walk in and look at her vitals. She remembered passing out shortly after telling the nurse she was Ranger's wife. Her eyes suddenly widened. Oh, god, where was Ranger?

"Good, you're awake." Nurse Hetterly smiled at her. We've got some pain meds for you but you were severely dehydrated. My goodness, it was like you had run for miles."

"I had." She said but her throat felt like a cotton ball was stuck in there. Hetterly poured a cup of water and helped her drink it.

"Your husband is on his way here. We called him a couple hours ago, so hopefully he'll be here any moment."

Tears filled her eyes and the nurse looked worried. "Oh dear, we shouldn't have done that, should we? If he did this I can have the local police here—"

"No, no." Stephanie interrupted with a smile. "He didn't do this. I'm just relieved he'll be here.

As she finished speaking Ranger walked right into the room. Nurse Hetterly's mouth opened and failed to work. She turned to Stephanie winked and left the room. Ranger came to the bedside and took her hand.

"Hi." She whispered.

"Babe." Ranger gave her a hard kiss. "You set the rule."

"I know." Tears sat on her lashes.

"We don't let Elise play with the taser guns after that unfortunate incident." Stephanie managed to smile. Ranger didn't refer to it as him getting tasered in the ass. He referred to it as that unfortunate incident.

"I know."

"Babe." He sat down pulling the chair close to her.

"I got cocky." Stephanie muttered. "And I paid for it. It won't happen again."

"Stephanie."

She looked at him and burst into an onslaught of tears that she'd held back since Brett caught her. Ranger held her until she got it out of her system. He was staring at her wrists where the rope had cut through her skin. Stephanie leaned back and saw where his gaze was fixated. At the risk of infuriating him even more, she whispered. "Those aren't the only ones."

Ranger looked at her and she pulled up the hospital gown revealing the long line on her side that had been stitched close. She could see the fire in his eyes as he looked at. She also knew he was seeing the bruising on her ribs. Her sides _hurt _and she was sure it was from the hits she had received.

"Good, you're awake." The doctor walked in and smiled. "Gave us a scare there when you passed out there, young lady." He flipped through her chart briefly. "You've got a couple broken ribs, and your side is going to heal just fine. We've got some medicine for you to take if the pain is too much. We have some salve you can use on your wrists, or we can wrap them for you but they're not too bad that they'd really need to be wrapped. Just make sure they're cleaned regularly." He stopped talking and looked at her. "Any questions?"

Stephanie shook her head. "No. When can I leave?"

"We're going to wait until that bag is empty," He motioned to the bag that was slowly dripping fluid down. "As Nurse Hetterly said you were severely dehydrated when you arrived. When was the last time you ate?"

"Um. Lunch." She looked at Ranger.

He raised his eyebrows. "Babe, that was five days ago."

"I see. I'm going to have someone send up some food for you." The doctor left the room.

Ranger looked at her. "That bastard didn't feed you?"

"He tried. I didn't trust that he hadn't drugged it." Stephanie replied. She sagged against the pillows. "I don't get it. You arrived here after a couple hours. Did you fly?"

"Drove."

"What?" Stephanie stared at him shocked. "Where are we?"

"Lyle."

"Sonovabitch!" She hit the metal frame and cringed when pain shot up her arm. "He drove in circles for almost two days before stopping at the house. No wonder I couldn't figure out where I was."

"Babe?" Ranger looked at her curiously.

Stephanie sighed. "I knew John had an estate a couple hours away from Trenton. If Brett had taken me directly there I would have figured out which estate it was. But there are others I haven't been to yet."

"Ahh." Ranger leaned back and nodded. "The men are at the estate right now."

"How did you figure out where it was?"

"Your real estate agent arrived. Apparently there was a disturbance at the estate and you're the only one who would have the codes. It appears," Ranger leaned forward, "that Brett did as well."

"God." Stephanie moaned. "I am _such _an idiot! If I'd thought about the estates more, we would have stumbled on Brett sooner."

Ranger's phone went off. "Report." He listened to the other end then hung up. "The estate he was holding you at is in flames."

"Flames." Stephanie repeated, then she saw red. "You have got to be fucking kidding me! John is going to kick my ass."

Ranger smiled. "John's dead."

"He threatened a haunting." She muttered and closed her eyes. Then they popped open. "Oh, god, Elise! Ranger is she…"

"She's safe. Lester is watching her." Ranger kissed her again, as deeply as he could. At the small moan she gave, and her fingers curling into his shirt, a primal growl came from the back of this throat. He felt her shiver with excitement.

Pulling back, he kept his forehead to hers. "You're stuck to me now, Babe. I'm not even letting you take a shower without me until Brett is caught."

"Yeah, okay." She murmured.

When the doctor finally okayed her release, they met all the men who'd come with Ranger down in the lobby. They had been sent to the estate to find Brett while Ranger went to the hospital. The estate was toast. Stephanie sent a mental plea to John Tresdale begging him to please not actually start haunting her.

Ranger packed her into his SUV and they took off. It was just the two of them. He glanced at her. Her legs were curled up to her chest and she was chewing on her thumb nail looking focused on the black scenery passing them by.

"Babe, what's up?"

"I'm trying to figure out where Brett would go next. I hate to give him any credit for smarts, but he got right under my nose and I wouldn't have thought about anything until it was time to sell that estate. Hell, we don't even know if I'd be alive by the time I got to it if Brett had done his worst." She didn't glance at Ranger, because she could feel his tension and anger at her casualness of the comment. She continued before he could interrupt. "I think at this point we'll have to go into hiding. I hate to do it to all the men because they shouldn't be subjected to it, but I think after this and the fact that I got away, Brett will go over the edge completely."

"I imagine the men could continue to go about their daily lives as long they stick to the rule." Ranger said, trying to force himself to calm down.

He had wanted to go straight to the estate and kill Brett. His inner predator demanded retribution for the pain inflicted on his lover. Going to the hospital had been the first stop because in the back of his mind he knew that if Brett figured out Stephanie had disappeared, he would destroy the evidence of his living there. He'd go into hiding. For now, he'd have to pacify his predator with promises of getting even soon. Brett had indeed gone over the edge. It was only a matter of time before he would make his next move.

"Ranger." Stephanie said softly looking at him. "We need to talk."

"Babe."

"Not at the house."

Ranger pulled out his phone and called Tank. He told his second in command to make sure all the men arrived home safely. He was taking Stephanie to Point Pleasant for the night.

….

The men trudged into the house. There was a small bitterness in their victory. They had gotten Stephanie back alive and well, but they had hadn't caught Brett. They knew none of them would be able to stop Ranger once he got a hold of Brett, but they wanted to make things end.

Tank and RJ stopped in the living room and simply stared. As the other men gathered around, Seth said. "Oh god. Man down. Man down!"

Lester was passed out on the couch. The living room was clean with hardly a spec of dust anywhere. Elise was curled up in a chair looking peaceful in her sleep. But the men couldn't stop staring at Lester. He was wearing bright purple eye shadow and hot pink lipstick. There were big red spots on his cheeks that the men assumed was blush. And there was a barrette in his hair.

Walking over to Elise, Tank picked her up. She fussed for a moment but settled in his arms. As he left the room he saw Seth and Hal taking pictures with their phones. He shook his head.

After settling her in bed, Tank left her door open and met the men back in the kitchen. There were rounds of shots sitting in front of everyone. Hal poured one for Tank and passed it over.

"So, we celebrate Sugar Plum's return to us." RJ lifted his shot glass. Everyone lifted theirs as well. "And we mourn the loss of a fallen comrade." His lips were twitching. Quickly they all threw back their shots as Lester groggily walked in.

"Hey guys, Bomber good?"

"Yeah. Bomber's good." Bobby reported. "Unfortunately, Brett got away. We'll get him though."

"We did lose one man tonight." Tank said.

Lester looked around and counted heads. "We're all here."

Silently, Alex picked up the metal toaster and held it up so Lester could see his reflection. Lester's face turned from confused to horrified. "I told her no! I swear!"

"It's okay man. When she bats those big brown eyes, it's tough." Tank clapped him on the back.

"No, I told her no! She must have done it when I was asleep!" Lester looked around at the rest of the men. "You have to believe me!"

"Don't worry. We'll help you get back on your feet." Hal grinned. "Having her say no to you is going to be tough, but we'll get you through it."

"I did tell her no!" Lester cried.

Alex took pity on him. "Dude. Never go to sleep before the five year old."

"She has more energy than I do, man." Lester sighed. "I couldn't keep up."

The men spent the rest of the evening heckling Lester and taking turns to check on Elise. None of them noticed that she gripped a set of dog tags in her hand as she slept. They were relieved to have Stephanie back and would give the two lovers the night at Point Pleasant.

* * *

Chapter 16


	18. Chapter 17

**AN: I don't own them, but I like to play with them! Thanks for your wonderful reviews!**

****

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 17**

He sat in the corner of the couch. She sat next to him, sitting on her knees facing him. He watched her carefully. Her head was bent down staring at her hands in her lap. More than once she had opened her mouth to speak but closed it, taking a couple of large deep breaths.

The fireplace was blazing, letting off a comfortable heat. It seemed to relax her a little bit. Ranger stretched out one of his legs and looked like he was sitting there casually.

Taking one last deep breath she said, "So after you dropped me off at the airport, I went to Europe. The first week was pretty entertaining. I went to a lot of the places you suggested because you thought I'd like them. You were right. I thought they were awesome." She looked up smiled quickly and looked back down at her hands again. "I even went to the pub you told me about in Ireland. It was quaint and soothing. I was sitting there thinking about a lot of things; Morelli, you, work, etc. Then a guy came up and sat in front of me. He introduced himself to me.

"Brett was charming. He talked about the country side and said there were some local sights I should see. He offered to take me out to see them the next morning and I agreed. I didn't think it'd hurt, y'know? What better way to learn the place you're visiting than through the eyes of a local? We filled up that day and he took me out the next. He took me out and about for several days. One night he was dropping me off at my hotel and he tried to kiss me. I was polite but said I wasn't interested. There was someone at home I was interested in. So he backed off.

"The day after he said he wanted me to meet his grandfather. Said they were close. I went with him and met John. John reminded me of you. He's not as quiet as you but he was as mysterious. He had said something at dinner that really reminded me of you and I think I mentioned your name out loud. He looked at me amused and I realized that he knew who you were.

"I stayed at his estate for a few days with no incident. Brett asked about you because he realized you were the one I was interested in." She sighed. "I was fueling a fire I wasn't aware of. One night I was walking through the gardens and Brett confronted me. He said he could offer me a lifetime of happiness if I stayed with him. I could live comfortably, wouldn't have to worry about anything, I would be safe. I said no and he…he-…" Stephanie stopped and closed her eyes taking a hard breath.

"Babe, we don't have to—" Ranger stopped when she held up her hand.

"I've never talked about this night, Carlos." She whispered. "You've been my best friend for a long time and you're the only one I'd willing talk to about it." She wrung her hands in her lap for a moment. "He attacked me. I hit the ground. I was a surprised and tried to get away but he was stronger and I didn't have anything with me. I couldn't grab anything. I could barely fight.

"When it was over, he was smug and was certain he'd ruined me for you. He walked off. I don't know how long I lay there, but one of the maids found me. John was furious. He called his physician in and had me checked out. They called the police, he was arrested. The outrage on his face was remarkable. For a long time John had bailed him because he was his daughter's only child. But he seemed to snap when Brett attacked me.

"John kept me at the estate to let me regain my strength. I had another few days left before I was going to head home. I stayed in bed for most of it." Tears slipped down her cheeks gently. "I was so angry. At first I was angry with you. Angry that you hadn't pushed to go with me, angry that you hadn't been there to protect me like you'd always been. And then I was angry with me for not taking you up on your offers to help me get in better shape. I was angry that I didn't have the physical ability to push someone off me if something like that happened. Then I decided I had had enough of being helpless.

"John came and offered to send me home early if that was what I wanted. I told him what I wanted was to be trained to fight. So that's what he did. At first it was just self defense, but then the guys had to give more variety to it because I was catching on. I was…" She searched for the right words. "…I was trying to find a way to get the anger out. It didn't help that after about a year I was able to beat _them._ John tried to distract me with movies. I taught him about baseball." Stephanie couldn't stop the giggle. "He was fun to watch get mad at the umps. Then he started teaching me other things. Real Estate is one of them. I have a few buildings I'm invested in, they bring a steady profit. I didn't think I could feel such an accomplishment, y'know? But I felt empowered.

"That's what happened all three years I was gone. I learned a lot of things about what I can do with my physical self and how to keep myself from being poor again." She shrugged. "I just…had to tell you."

Ranger stared at her for a few minutes. The anger was still there, but it looked like it had started to seep out a little bit. Finally he said, "Do you really have a post it note on your monitor that says WWRD?"

"Yes." She ducked her head, but he could see her blush. Finally she met his eyes. "If I got stuck I would think of you and it kept pushing me forward. I still do."

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "If you had called me I would have been there in an instant and I would have killed him."

"I know." Stephanie whispered.

"Babe." Ranger leaned over and cupped her face in his hand. He kissed her until it was all he could do not to take her there on the couch. "I'm proud of you."

"What?"

"You fought, babe." Ranger cupped the back of her neck. It was setting both of them on fire, but he continued to hold her. "When he got you again, you fought. He's not winning. I won't let him win. You're taking yourself back from him."

Tears of anger filled her eyes. "I want to kill him, but even with all the training I've had, I don't think I could actually do it."

"If it came down to it, you could." Ranger slid his hand down her back and under her butt. His arm lifted her easily off her spot and into his lap. He held her securely against him, minding her sides. "You'd be surprised what you can do, babe."

"Ranger…" She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. She kissed his neck softly.

"Babe…" He growled softly.

"Yes, Carlos?"

Ranger groaned. "Shit, do you know what it does to me when you call me that?"

"Yeah," Stephanie said smiling as she picked her head up. "I feel a soldier coming to attention. Care to put him at ease?"

_More than anything, _he thought looking at her and falling deep into her eyes. "Babe, I want to, badly, but you've got a couple of broken ribs and stitches. I'm not willing to risk you hurting yourself more."

"So, then he's just gonna have to be tortured a bit, hm?" She murmured nipping at his neck. He growled dangerously. It was taking every ounce of control he possessed and some prayers to the man upstairs to keep him from taking her. When her hand slipped beneath his waistband he stood picking her up.

"_Stephanie._" His name growled out deliciously.

"Hm?" She curled into him as he carried her to the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed.

He leaned close to her. "Babe, when you're better, there's a certain country that's being invaded."

Stephanie laughed. "Declaration of war acknowledged, sir!"

Ranger chuckled and went to the bathroom. The large tub in there was big enough for the both of them, he decided. He wanted to help her get cleaned up. Turning the faucet he went back into the bedroom. "Come on, let's get some of the grime off you."

Stephanie walked into the bathroom with him and gaped at the size of the tub. It was _huge_. They could almost go swimming in it. She looked in it. Swimming in it looked like fun.

"Babe." Ranger turned her and helped her get her shirt off. Stretching up hurt her. When he saw the bruises on her body a fresh wave of anger surged through him. Together they got her jeans off and he saw less bruising on her legs, but there were still some. After helping her into the tub, he stripped out of his own clothes and saw Stephanie looking at him like he was a fresh piece of meat. He grinned when she licked her lips as her eyes fixated on his hardened soldier.

He settled behind her and gently washed her. The water only came to their waists, making it easier for her to sit in to avoid her stitches. His hands were gentle as they moved along her body. Stephanie leaned back against him. With a grin of wickedness she couldn't see his hand traveled down her tummy and a couple fingers slid deep into her as his thumb toyed with her clit.

She gasped. "Not…fair."

"Sneak attacks rarely are." He nibbled on her ear. His hand continued to move while his legs pinned hers down. He felt her entire body react to him. She was moaning softly, her head leaning back on his shoulder. His mouth moved to her neck. He bit down softly and licked the skin.

"_Carlos!_" She cried out softly.

It was his undoing. He turned her around, pulled her legs around him and thrusted up into her. Ranger buried his face in her neck, holding her close, trying not to crush her to him. She was clinging to him, tightening around him. She moved with him, her fingers curling in his hair, giving short little gasps. Gently he took one of her nipples in his mouth. He sucked at it, nipped at it and hardened it like a rock. He turned his attention to her other, and her nails raked their way down his back.

Stephanie screamed his name, "Carlos!" as she came. Her body tightened around him, his head buried between her breasts, she could feel his gasps on her stomach and felt his whole body shudder when he finally released into her.

"I believe that invasion was much earlier than anticipated." She murmured in his ear.

Ranger looked up at her. Kissing her softly he said against her lips, "Don't worry, more invasions will be coming."

…

Ranger woke first in the morning. He looked at the clock and saw that it was nine. He sighed and turned to look at Stephanie. He had worried that he'd hurt her more when they were in the tub, but she looked more sated than anything. She was asleep on her back right now, the sheet barely covering her waist. The bruises had taken on yellowish hue.

He picked up his phone and saw a missed text. Looking at it, he laughed quietly at the picture of Lester sleeping, covered in make up. Beside him Stephanie stretched. "Mm, what's funny?" She laughed when Ranger showed her the picture. "Oh, poor Les! He's never going to live that down!"

"Gives me some ammunition against him." Ranger laughed. He got out of bed and dressed. "We have to be heading back, Babe."

"I know." She rose and started toward the bathroom. "I want to check on Elise. I should have called last night but with everything going on…"

"Don't worry, the boys took care of her." He replied coming into the bathroom to help her. He could tell she was moving stiffer today.

"Carlos…do you mind that I put you down as Elise's legal guardian if something happens to me?" She asked biting her lip.

Ranger kissed her softly. "No. I'm glad you did. You were right when you told Marcus she's going to be loved by a lot of people." He led her out of the house. Locking up they went to the SUV and began heading out. Stephanie's stomach growled loudly.

"I think I need to eat." She muttered.

He chuckled. "I think so too."


	19. Chapter 18

**AN: Thanks for the wonderful reviews everyone! I'm glad y'all are enjoying the story! I don't own, I just play!**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

"Aunt Steph!" Elise shrieked delightedly as Stephanie and Ranger walked through the door. She launched herself up. Stephanie hid the wince as she picked up Elise.

"Hello, Munchkin!" She smiled and kissed her on top of her head. "How are you?"

"Better! Uncle Ranger got me at the mall! I was brave, just like you told me to be!" She continued to ramble on as the three of them walked through the house to the family room. Stephanie smiled over the top of Elise's head at Ranger. He grinned back at her.

"Aunt Steph?" Elise said softly.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Since my daddy is gone, does that mean I have to go back to my mom?" Elise asked.

"No," Stephanie shook her head. "No, your daddy left me in charge of you."

"Forever?"

"Forever." Stephanie smiled at her.

"Does that mean you're my mommy?"

Stephanie was glad they were sitting on the couch. The question surprised her. If she were in Elise's shoes she supposed she would ask the same thing. She could feel Ranger's hand on her neck, thumb running up and down soothingly.

"Well, I suppose it does." Stephanie finally said.

Elise looked like she was giving it hard thought. After a moment, she said, "Good." Then crawled over to Ranger. She sat on his lap Indian style and looked at him hard and whispered loudly. "Uncle Ranger, I want a sister!"

Stephanie choked on laughter at the look on Ranger's face. "Really?" He asked.

Elise nodded emphatically. "And a brother!" She leaned close to him. "Can you make Mommy give me one?"

"I'll see what I can do." He whispered conspiratorially. He looked at Stephanie. Her eyes had filled with tears when Elise called her Mommy.

"Kay!" Elise wiggled down off his lap and ran off. From where they sat they could hear her shout, "Cheer Bear, Uncle Ranger is going to make Mommy give me a brother and sister!"

Ranger couldn't decide whether or not to laugh at the look on Stephanie's face. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're supposed to be standing strong to her, Ranger!"

"I was standing strong." Ranger leaned close. His hand cupped the back of her neck. Her body shivered from the electricity that shot through her. He brushed his lips across hers. "I love you, Babe."

"I love you too, Carlos." She whispered against his lips. His eyes darkened. She loved to see his eyes darken. It was one of the most arousing things about him. If nothing in his face betrayed emotion, his eyes would, but only with her.

"I felt my heart stop when Elise told me Brett had you." He continued. "I had planned on taking you out and making you mine when you came back from Europe. Things changed, but when I saw you in the bonds office again, I knew you were still mine."

"Carlos…"

"I'm not done." Ranger interrupted. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life dancing around you, afraid someone will sweep you out from under me. I want to marry you and make you my wife. I want to spend the rest of my life loving you and raising Elise and whatever sibling she manages to get us to give her. Our lives are dangerous, and I thought pushing you to Morelli so many times would make things easier. It didn't. Every time the desire to call you back got stronger. When you called it quits completely it was the best news I'd ever heard. Spend the rest of your life with me, Babe. I'll make it worth it."

Stephanie smiled as tears slipped down her cheeks. "Yeah, I know. I'll make life interesting for you."

"Don't I know it." He chuckled as he kissed her softly, feeling himself soar. "After Brett's taken care of, I'm marrying you."

"Yeah, you bet your ass." Stephanie cuddled into him. "Especially if we're supposed to give Elise siblings."

"We could go practice." He purred in her ear bringing delicious shivers up and down her body.

"Dude. Get a room." Lester said leaning in the entryway.

Ranger glared at him. "Fuck off, Leslie."

Stephanie laughed at the mortified look on his face. "I told her no," Lester muttered again as Tank walked in.

"Bomber, are you knocked up?" He asked.

"No." She smiled shaking her head.

"Not yet." Ranger countered.

Tank laughed. "Make an honest woman of her first!"

"I will be." Ranger leaned back against the couch, one arm securely wrapped around Stephanie bringing her with him. "Any news?"

"Nothing. There's been no sign of him at the other estates either." Tank answered.

"Hm. Just in case, I'll need to call the security company and change the codes." Stephanie said thoughtfully. "I want to make sure he can't get in."

"We have to wonder when he's going to attack again." Tank said outloud.

"Soon," Stephanie said. "I'd bet my life on it."

"Let's not do that kind of betting, babe." Ranger said, his arm tightening around her. "But I agree. He's bound to strike soon. He's not going to be pleased that Stephanie got away."

…

The next couple weeks showed little signs of movement from Brett. Stephanie healed as quickly as she was able. She did most of her work from home, making her calls. Any meetings she had had set up were postponed until Brett was caught. Elise stuck to Ranger and Stephanie like glue. She had become quieter, but was always watching them like she was afraid they would disappear. The first couple nights Stephanie was home, they had found Elise sneaking into the room and curling up between them at night. When Elise woke up she would find herself cocooned safely in both their arms. After reassuring herself that neither of them would go anywhere, she started sleeping in her bed at night, clinging to the dog tags when she was feeling scared. She was going to be brave.

Stephanie had woken one morning to find an engagement ring nestled comfortably on her finger. It was beautiful. A black diamond heart surrounded by white diamonds on a platinum band stood out brightly for her to see. She had found Ranger watching her, looking a little nervous. She kissed him and spent the morning making love with him.

Ranger kept watching for Brett. All of the estates that John had left to be sold were being monitored by RangeMan. Nothing was out of the ordinary. There was no movement there. He felt frustration grow. He wanted to do something.

"Boss, you're not going to believe this." Tank said one morning. "According to the reports we have coming from some of Stephanie's men in England, the police are looking for Brett. The men there are keeping things quiet until they know what we plan to do when we catch him."

"I plan to kill him."

"Yeah, I figured." Tank answered. "RJ said one of them has an Inspector for a connection. He's going to be kept apprised as much as we're willing."

"Fine." Ranger said turning his attention back to his paperwork. Elise came in and crawled up into his lap. Their morning routine had come easily, he realized. Whenever he was in the office, Elise would park herself in his lap and color quietly, leaving him enough room to work without bothering her and vice versa. He was glad to have such a large desk. One drawer held extra markers and crayons for Elise. He was a little concerned about how quiet Elise had gotten but was trying to keep from making her scared.

Looking down at her, he saw the chain around her neck and smiled realizing she was wearing the dog tags. "Got your dad's dog tags, Munchkin?"

She nodded. "And yours. Cheer Bear told me."

"You like wearing them?"

"They make me brave." She leaned her head back and looked at him. "And make me safe."

Unable to resist, Ranger planted a small kiss on the top of her head. He was glad he could help make her feel safe, even if he wasn't there all the time. Later after Stephanie had come to take Elise down to lunch, he called Julie to talk to her. After the incident with Scrog, he made it a point to talk to his daughter as often as he could, wanting to be a strong part of her life. He didn't have any parental rights, but Rachel was glad they were getting to know each other. He'd found himself invited more and more to come visit. He took them up on it. Ranger noticed that Julie was more like him than he would have thought, even without his influence.

He wondered how like him his and Stephanie's children would be. Ranger smiled. The idea of Stephanie swollen with their child aroused him. When Brett was gone he was going to love watching their lives unfold together.


	20. Chapter 19

****

AN: Thanks for the wonderful reviews everyone! I've got about 2 chapters left and the story will be complete :-) I took some liberties with the age difference between Julie and Elise just in case anyone is curious. Hope you enjoy the chapter! I don't own them, I just play!

******

* * *

**

**Chapter 19**

The day had started out beautiful. The sun was shinning, the trees magnificently green in their authority of the world around them. Stephanie had sweet talked Ranger into a run along the river. They had run for eight miles, keeping easy stride with one another. In the distance of their run they could see dark thunder clouds rolling toward them. The fresh air that swirled around them was filled with moisture. There would be rain later. Heavy rain based on what the clouds promised.

Ranger was impressed with how well Stephanie had handled healing. Most of her gym workouts were done slower due to the injuries, but she could handle running and run she did. He loved watching her build up a sweat while they ran. He couldn't wait until they got home and in the shower. Pressing her up against the wall as water streamed over them. _Dios, _he thought glancing at the river, knowing how cold it was. He might have to throw himself into it to keep himself in control before their run was over.

Their run concluded as they slowed and walked to the house. Ranger reached over and kissed Stephanie senseless, bringing a faint blush to her cheeks. He had missed seeing that blush! The kitchen door was unlocked and they found Lester and Seth trying to convince Elise to eat some broccoli.

She was looking particularly stubborn, even when she saw Ranger and Stephanie walk in. "Mommy, they're making me eat this!" She pointed at the broccoli with disdain.

"It's good for you sweetheart." Stephanie answered.

To help prove the point, Ranger reached over and plucked a piece off her plate. Popping it into his mouth he smiled at Elise and said, "Mmm."

Elise narrowed her eyes at him. For a five year old, she had managed to pick up some of Stephanie's habits already. The last few weeks she had taken to calling Stephanie Mommy, which was fine, Stephanie loved Elise to pieces.

"Look, Munchkin," Lester smiled at her, "Think of these like trees. You like trees?"

"I want to climb trees." Elise grinned then frowned at the broccoli. "I can't climb these."

"No, but trees are good for you. They give us air." Lester motioned to the trees outside. "Broccoli is good for you because they give you energy. So it's like a tree."

"A tree." Elise furrowed her little brows and stared at the broccoli on her plate. Finally, she picked up a handful of broccoli in her hand and crawled off the stool. Without looking at her mom or uncles, she walked outside.

Curious, they all followed her. She was kneeling down on the ground digging with her hands, the broccoli sitting next to her.

"Munchkin, what are you doing?" Ranger asked.

"I'm planting the broccoli." She replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Stephanie tried not to laugh. "Why are you planting broccoli?"

"Cause they're like trees." Elise said again.

"Honey, you're supposed to eat them."

Elise looked up at them, giving them all a long blank look that had grown men and a woman shifting. Turning her attention back to the hole she was digging, she continued to dig until she thought it was good enough to bury the broccoli.

"I'm done with lunch!" Elise announced moments later and bounced past all of the dumbfounded adults. They knew they would find her quietly playing in her room.

"She just planted broccoli." Lester said finally finding his voice.

"She sure did." Seth chuckled. "God, this is going to make life interesting. I forgot how innocently kids look at things."

"She planted broccoli." Lester repeated as though he couldn't quite figure it out. He had been to war and back, had seen things he would never talk about again, but a five year old planting broccoli threw him more than anything he had ever seen.

"Have you noticed her silence?" Ranger whispered in Stephanie's ear.

She looked up and gave a sad smile. "You too?"

"I get the feeling it's her coping mechanism." Ranger said leading his Babe through the house. "I've seen men do things to cope with some of the things we go through."

"I get that." Stephanie nodded. "I also get the feeling she's taking after you."

"How so?"

Shrugging Stephanie opened the door to her bedroom. "You observe, she's observing. She's watching all of us, especially you and me. She doesn't want to lose more than she's already lost. I'm not sure she even understands fully what she lost by Mac dying. It's something I imagine we'll deal with when she gets older."

Ranger could only nod in agreement as they walked into the bathroom. The shower started and within seconds they were both immersed underneath the hot flood of water.

Stephanie slid her hands up Rangers chest, smiling at the sight of his cock hardening for her. Her mouth followed her hands, nipped at his neck, and caught his mouth with hers. Their tongues met and Ranger had her against the wall, lifted her off the ground and with a quick movement buried himself deep in her. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he thrust into her.

"Carlos!" She cried out, clinging to him. Ranger's head was bent toward hers, breath coming in ragged gasps. She saw the desperate love in his eyes as his mouth claimed hers readily. With their mouths fused together, one of her hands slid from around his back down between them and fingered herself. She swallowed the growl Ranger emitted as she started breathing harder. He was thrusting faster and deeper, moving just right that she didn't need to use her fingers and could only cling to him.

"Stephanie!" Ranger growled as he felt her tighten around him. Their climaxes hit together, hard and draining them. It was several minutes before either of them moved. Their bodies shuddered and neither would let the other go.

When they finally emerged from the shower they got dressed and made sure they were ready for the day. As Ranger was clipping his phone onto his pants, it rang. "Yo."

Stephanie dresses in jeans and a cami with a light sweater over it. She checked her voicemail and found a few messages waiting for her, one from Marcus, one from her mother and one from her sister. She grimaced. She had been pretty lax in calling them. No doubt her mother wanted her to come over for dinner. Stephanie looked down at her hand. She would have lot of explaining to do, she supposed as she looked at her engagement ring. Things would fly through the Burg and she was certain she didn't want anything going around until Brett was caught. Until they caught him, there would be little contact with her family.

But just in case…

"Hi, Mom." Stephanie said suppressing a sigh.

"Stephanie! Where have you been? I would have thought you'd be home for dinner more than this! You've been home for quite awhile now." Helen said. "Other mother's don't have daughters who come home and just ignore their family."

"There's a lot going on right now." She replied.

"So much you can't make time for your family?"

"Unfortunately, yes." She could see Helen crossing herself in her minds eye. Then she heard, "Frank! Come talk to your daughter!"

"Hi, pumpkin." Frank sighed getting on the phone.

"Hey, daddy." Stephanie said softly. Her dad would understand.

"You ok?"

"Yeah."

"Safe?"

"As much as I can be."

"Things bad?"

"A bit."

"Ranger with you?"

"Yup."

"Let me talk to the boy."

Surprised Stephanie held out the phone to Ranger. "Dad wants to talk to you."

Amused Ranger took the phone from her. "Sir?"

"You protecting my girl?"

"Yes, sir."

"How bad is it?"

"Can't keep track of him."

"Young man, I expect you to keep her alive."

"It's what I do best, sir."

"Good. Then you can come to dinner when it's all over." Frank said. "Let me talk to Steph."

Ranger chuckled as he gave the phone back to her. "Daddy, did you threaten him?"

"Course not. I implied."

"What did you imply?"

"He knows."

"_Daddy_."

"Stephanie. I watched that boy tear Trenton apart when you didn't come home. I don't know what happened to you in Europe, but I can guess it was bad. I saw you walk through the door and saw myself in you. We're survivors, pumpkin. You fought back against whatever hurt you. If you're hiding out this much my guess is that something followed you back here."

"Are you so sure?" Stephanie couldn't keep the smile out voice. Ranger was standing close listening as well.

"I've also noticed a couple black SUV's parked near the house keeping a sharp eye on things. It didn't take much guess work." Frank cleared his throat. "I expect both of you to come to dinner when this is all over. We have some things to talk about; you and me."

"Daddy I…" Stephanie's voice dropped off. She had never heard so much out of her father before. He was ex-Army, so she could imagine that he when he did talk people would shut up and listen. Much like they did with Ranger.

"Also, you might have Ranger advise his men to use a stun gun on your grandmother."

"Why?"

"Let's just say war would be nicer to them than what she's doing." Frank said. "Call us when it's over."

With that he hung up. Stephanie stared at her phone. She was surprised that her father had read her so well. She was more surprised that he had given her so much talk. She looked at Ranger. "Apparently your men need to be sent to war."

"I gathered." Ranger grimaced. "I'll be giving them hazard pay for years from the sounds of it. Babe, I got a call. I have to head to town for a few hours for some meetings. I'll take Tank with me. Seth and Lester sent me a text. They've taken Elise out for a bit. They're taking her to the park and then a movie."

"Oh, that's good." She smiled. "I can get some work done in the office. Perhaps you can talk Ella into sending something home with you? Something for all of us. I think cabin fever is taking its toll on everyone."

"Sure." He kissed her and left.

…

It was late afternoon when the storm hit. Stephanie closed her computer down and sat back to watch the storm unfurl around the house. She could see the lightning streaking across the sky. Thunder rumbled dangerously in sky, rattling the windows. Rain came down in angry waves. She shivered. This was an intense night. She could feel it. Something would happen. It was a climactic point and she knew after tonight things would change. For better or worse, she knew they would change.

She had received a text from Seth and Lester saying they would be out with Elise longer. Apparently she had made a couple friends at the park and their mothers had invited them to go get pizza. Stephanie had smiled when she saw that. She was glad Elise was making friends. It was important that she do that.

As she watched the storm outside, she wondered how Julie would feel about having a little sister. There was only about six years between them. If Julie was anything like Ranger (which she had proved with the Scrog incident that she was) then she would like Elise. One of her calls to Marcus had been in relation to adopting Elise as hers. It would be kept private, and she knew she needed to talk to Ranger about it, but she didn't think he would mind. In fact, while Stephanie had been on the phone with Marcus, he had asked about her birthday. It seemed that they had missed Elise's sixth birthday. She felt a huge twinge of guilt but would make it up to her. Once things settled down she would talk to her mother, or Ella, and see what they could do to make a good birthday for Elise.

The power blacked out, leaving her in a room lit up only by the angry storm swirling outside. Stephanie knew this house like the back of her hand, so she walked easily from the room.

"Alex? RJ?" She called, then remembered they had left. Bobby would be the only one left in the house. It stuck with the rule, she thought. As long as they were in pairs. She worked her to the kitchen where she found a flashlight. "Bobby?"

No answer.

She walked through the house, shining the light in any room she thought Bobby would be in. She didn't find him in any of them. Trekking down the stairs to the basement she found him sprawled out on one of the mats.

"Bobby!" Stephanie ran over to him. There was a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his neck. One of the doors to the outside from the basement swung open, letting her know the wind was shrieking its fury.

"Oh shit." She muttered.

"Hello, Stephanie."

She whirled around, shining the light in Brett's face. He grinned maliciously. "You've been very bad."


	21. Chapter 20

**AN: Okay, so one more chapter to go! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Your reviews are wonderful and welcomed! I don't own them, I just play!**

****

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 20**

"How the hell did you find me?" She demanded.

"You're not the only one with connections." He smiled tauntingly. "Now come along like a good little girlfriend."

"I don't think so." She snapped.

His face twisted into something so ugly that Stephanie stepped back in surprise. "You stupid little bitch! You think I'm going to let you ruin my life? Think again! I'll fuck you over and over again. Once I'm done with you no one will want anything to do with you and you'll be begging me for everything I do to you!"

"I doubt it." Stephanie growled.

Brett reached for her. In a moment of clarity, Stephanie turned off the flashlight. She had only seconds before Brett's eyes would adjust to the darkness. She kicked him back squarely. She had to get him away from Bobby. He might be unconscious, but if Brett was after _her _he would probably leave Bobby alone.

"You want me, you sick son of a bitch?" She taunted. "Then come get me!"

With that, she ran.

Stephanie could hear Brett behind her. While she had been trained by the men to run quietly and stealthily, he had not. He was clumsy and loud. His breathing was uneven. He didn't know the house the way she did. She just had to get to the office. Her cell was in there. She could send a message to Ranger and get him back here. She would just have to hold Brett off until he did.

She might even kill him if it came down to it.

…

Ranger leaned back at his desk feeling accomplished. He had gotten the information he needed for the new accounts. All his meetings had been successful. They would be getting new clients who wanted all the works they could provide. He sent a mental thank you to Stephanie. He imagined it would have taken him much longer to get these accounts had it not been for his Babe.

She was truly something else when it came to work. She was sharp, intelligent, read people, and could probably talk them into giving their souls to the devil. The last part he knew she would never do, but she read people, so she could relate. It was one of her strongest attributes and he knew it rankled her that she hadn't been able to read Brett and get away from him in time.

The other information he had on his desk was adoption paperwork. He was marrying Stephanie and he wanted to make Elise his. He would have to talk to Stephanie, but he was pretty sure she wouldn't mind. Plus, his lawyer had called hers and he'd found out that she had talked to Marcus about adopting Elise. He grinned as he looked at the ceiling. Yeah, he was getting a good deal. The woman he loved more than anything and a precocious little girl for a daughter.

Speaking of daughters…

"Hello?"

"Hi, Julie. It's Dad."

"Hi, Dad!" Julie exclaimed delightedly over the phone. "I was just telling mom that I wanted to come visit you when my summer break hits. Do you think I can? She said you have to be available and that I'd have to ask before I planned anything."

Ranger chuckled. "I think that would be wonderful. I meant ask you last time we talked, how do you feel about flying up for a wedding?"

"A wedding?"

"Yeah. I'm marrying Stephanie."

Ranger was forced to pull the phone from his ear at the delighted shriek that Julie let off. _Lord_, he thought, _if she ever joins the military then her CO will have no problems hearing her._

"Should I take that as a yes?"

"Oh, yes!" He could practically see Julie jumping up and down. "Mom! Dad's getting married!"

Rachel took the phone from Julie. "Hi, Carlos." She greeted warmly. He knew there were several people who didn't have good divorces and stayed on negative terms with their exes but he was glad that he was on such good terms with Rachel. She had encouraged him to pursue Stephanie when he was in Miami some years ago.

"Hi, Rachel. I guess you heard." He chuckled.

Rachel laughed. "Yes, I did. Do I know her?"

"It's Stephanie."

"Oh, Carlos! That's wonderful!" Rachel exclaimed. "She finally came home?"

"Yes. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something since I have you on the phone."

"Okay."

"How do you get a little girl to eat broccoli?"

"I'm sorry?" Rachel sounded floored.

Ranger sighed and leaned on his desk. First he told her what happened to Stephanie and that Brett was back and stalking her. He knew he could trust Rachel to keep this to herself. Her husband, Ron, might find out, but discretion was something he knew they gave him. No one would hear from their lips what Ranger was telling them. He explained the situation going on with Elise to Rachel. When he was finished, she whispered, "Oh, that poor thing!"

"As of now, Stephanie is her legal guardian. I know she's planning to adopt Elise, and since I'm planning to marry Stephanie, I want to adopt her."

"Carlos, that's so good of you." She smiled. "You'll make an excellent father. Julie just loves seeing you and talking to you."

"Thanks, Rachel." Ranger smiled. "That's good to hear."

"What did you try to get her to eat vegetables?"

"Lester told her broccoli was like trees."

"Oh, dear." Rachel laughed. He knew she could see where this was going. "Ranger, I'm going to be honest, you're going to have to get a backbone with her. It sounds like she's got you whipped."

"That's not true." He defended himself.

"You bought Julie a pony when she was seven."

"It's what she wanted."

"Where is that pony now?" Rachel asked.

"Um…"

"Exactly." She sighed. "It'll take some time, but there are cookbooks available that you can trick her into eating veggies without her knowing it. Plus, if you and Stephanie make a point of eating the same vegetables, it should encourage her to do the same."

"Thanks, Rachel."

"No problem." Rachel said. "When do you plan on getting married?"

"This coming summer."

"Oh, you and Stephanie set a date already?"

"No."

"_Carlos._" He could hear the laughter in her voice.

"I'm hoping for it to be this summer." He admitted finally.

"Well, just tell me when, and I will make sure Julie is there. I'm sure she'll love having a little sister to play with."

"Boss!" Tank opened the door.

"Rachel, I gotta go. We've got a situation." Ranger said. "I'll call when things are settled."

"Bomber's security system is shut down." Tank said tersely.

"What?"

"Power's out there I figure. It's the only reason she'd lose the security."

"Fuck."

In moments both men were speeding down the road.

…

"_Steph-anie!" _Brett called out in a sing song voice. "Come out, come out where ever you are!"

_Yeah, right, _she thought as she crouched into the shadows again. He'd managed to keep up with her. She hadn't been able to get to the office for her phone. He would have seen her. One wall was all window. Her silhouette would have stood out. She had done the only thing she could think of and run. The only way she had left to go was up and she was not going to get herself cornered in the attic. There was no way out. The window in there wasn't even big enough for her to crawl out of if she needed to.

She had gotten herself cornered in her own house. Brett was creeping closer and closer to her. She could hear him feeling against the wall, swiping the air around him. As he crept forward, Stephanie held her breath and slowly inched passed him. The hall way was wide enough that she could get around him without being seen.

Not daring to let the breath she'd been holding out, she moved closer to the stairs. Stephanie had almost set her foot down on the first stair when a hand clamped around her hair and yanked her back. She cried out as she slammed down against the stairs. She caught hold of the guard rail and kept herself from hitting her head on anything, but felt her cheek slam into the stair. The pain shot through her cheek, and through her sides where her healing ribs were still sensitive.

"You disobeyed me." Brett snarled. As he came down. He came close to her and brought a leg back to kick her. She caught his foot before he could connect with her and shoved back with all her might. Brett staggered and almost went down. Stephanie jerked herself up and was trying to get back up the stairs. Her gun. She wanted her gun, but now she couldn't get to it.

"I'm done." She announced suddenly. Stephanie stopped running.

Through the lightning flashing from some of the windows. She could see the grin on Brett's face. "Good. I'm already going to punish you, but since you've given up—"

"I haven't given up." Stephanie stated. "I'm not leaving with you, but I'm sure as hell not going to run from you any more."

"You can't take me." He laughed. "You're just a girl."

"I got away from you didn't I?" She taunted. He stalked toward her and swung out. She caught his arm and slammed him against a wall. She had no weapons, but if nothing else, she could beat the hell out of him until Ranger got to her. She knew he would know power was out. She had seen the security pad by the door. It was out too. Either it had gone out or Brett had taken it out himself, which was a possibility, she reflected, albeit not a good one.

"Stupid little bitch." Brett snarled. "Did you warm John's bed too?"

Stephanie punched at him, he blocked it. He kept talking. "Could that old fart get it up? Was he capable of that?"

"Your grandfather was a good man!" Stephanie shook her head and blocked a kick he aimed at her. "How could you put him through so much?"

"How could I? How could he take your word over mine?" He yelled. "He trained you like you were part of the fucking army. And those men are traitors. They'll have to be executed."

"You. Will. Not. Touch. Them." Stephanie said through gritted teeth. The last bit of anger seeped into her, fueling her to fight him. She knocked him back, took his legs out from under him, and kicked him. "You took a father from a little girl who was innocent in all this!"

"Casualty of war!"

"This isn't war!" She snapped. "This is me beating the hell out of the man who raped me!" And she did. She beat him for everything he had put her through, for every dirty feeling, or thought, she'd had in regards to her body, for feeling like she wasn't good enough, or strong enough.

Brett couldn't deflect everything she did. He felt bones snap, he cried out. Stephanie was much stronger than he anticipated. She was revisiting pain on him, but he was certain he'd get away. He could barely think through the fog of pain, but knew he'd have to really hurt her to make her behave.

The anger dissipated. The storm cleared. Moonlight shined down on them from the skylight. Stephanie stopped. Suddenly she was weary. Brett looked like nothing more than a bloody pulp. She had broken a wrist and perhaps some fingers from the way his arm lay awkwardly at his side. He was barely moving, but he was alive. She gave a deep sigh. He couldn't hurt her anymore. She knew that, but knew he wouldn't stop.

The front door slammed open. "Babe!"

"Ranger!" She yelled from her spot. Ranger and Tank found her in seconds. Ranger barely looked at Brett as he took her in his arms.

"I'm ok." She murmured. "Bobby is in the gym. I'm not sure if he's regained consciousness yet."

"It's okay. It's over." Ranger said soothingly. "Go with Tank and check on Bobby." He kissed her lovingly and watched as Stephanie went with Tank. He looked back at Brett. Pride burst in his chest. His babe had done that, but now it was time for him.

Brett looked through swollen eyes at the man looking down at him with cold vengeance with glittering black eyes. He wanted to laugh. It looked like the Devil himself had come to take him to Hell.


	22. Epilogue

**AN: This is it! The last chapter, but I actually have a couple sequels in mind. One is a one-shot that I'll probably post later tonight. I'm so glad all of you enjoyed the story! Thanks for the wonderful reviews and I hope y'all will read the next couple stories :-) **

**I don't own them, just play.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

Ranger knelt down beside Traymon. "We're going to dance, you and I. Have you ever danced with the devil?"

…

Brett's body was never found. All evidence of him having ever been in the states was effectively erased. Through research from RJ's connections in England it was discovered that there had been a few of John Tresdale's men who didn't care for Stephanie. While she had never met them, they didn't like that she had won Tresdale's affection and ultimately, although unwanted, his fortune. The men who had helped Brett had been expecting to make a strong profit from Tresdale's death. They had been instrumental in helping Brett right up until the end. When they realized he was losing his grip on sanity they had left him to rot, unaware of the fact that Ranger Manoso would hunt them down and make them pay for what had happened. RJ and Alex had flown to England and with some of the men over there that were loyal to Stephanie, as well as several Rangemen, had taken care of Brett's Loyalists.

Ranger noticed an immediate change in Stephanie's demeanor. She could still kick someone's ass if she was interested, but the anger she was using to mask herself from everyone had finally disappeared. He could feel it whenever he held her. While he prided himself on making the tension release from her body, he knew it was finally having retribution that eased all the stress from her.

As he held her hand on the drive to her parents' house, he could feel the tension beginning to build. While she was curious to know what her father knew, she knew facing her mother was going to be difficult. Elise sat in the back in her car seat quietly watching the scenery pass by.

"Ready?" Ranger asked when they pulled to the curb.

"Sure." Stephanie muttered as she got out of the car.

Ranger chuckled as he opened the door to the backseat and unbuckled Elise. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him as they walked up the walkway where Helen Plum and Grandma Mazur were waiting. Elise took one look at them and promptly buried her face in his neck.

"Well, who's this little button?" Grandma Mazur asked kindly.

"Mom, Grandma, this is Elise." Stephanie introduced them. Elise had turned her head to peak at them. Grandma Mazur smiled and winked at her, causing a little giggle to escape from Elise.

"Are you babysitting her?" Helen asked watching the little girl in Ranger's arms. She had to admit to a large level of surprise with the way Ranger held onto Elise. The more shocking realization was how similar to Ranger and Stephanie Elise looked. From what Helen could figure, she looked to be about five. There was no way Stephanie would have been able to hide a pregnancy five years ago.

Elise looked at Stephanie. "Mommy, can I color?"

"Mommy?" Helen let out a strangled sound that clearly made Elise nervous and tighten her arms around Ranger's neck.

"Ranger, take her inside." Stephanie said kissing his cheek and rubbing Elise on the back soothingly. After they were safely in the house, she turned back to her mother. "Elise's father was killed. He named me her guardian."

"Where's her mother?" Helen and Grandma Mazur listened attentively as Stephanie explained a little bit of the situation, leaving out major parts, but told them enough that they knew Stephanie wasn't going to give Elise up no matter what happened.

"Poor little girl." Grandma Mazur sighed. "She's a shy little thing."

"She wasn't before," Stephanie looked a little perturbed. "But with everything that happened..."

"She knew you before though." Helen interrupted. "Perhaps you never had to notice because she never had a reason to be shy. She's never met us until now."

"Maybe." Stephanie smiled at her mother. "Do you have any broccoli on the menu tonight?"

"I think so?"

"Don't be surprised if she goes out to plant it." At the surprised looks on their faces, Stephanie laughed and elaborated. The other two joined in laughing before turning to go inside.

When Ranger had closed the door, he set Elise on her feet. She had promptly wrapped her arms around one of his leg and refused to let go. "Elise, it's okay. They're not going to hurt you."

Her response was to hide her face in his pant leg. He sighed inwardly. She was becoming more and more quiet and shy. He hoped with time it would ease up. He looked up as Frank Plum walked into the foyer. "Ranger."

Frank looked at the little girl clinging to the young man in front of him. He smiled and knelt down. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Elise." She whispered.

"How old are you?"

"Six."

"Six!" Frank grinned widely. "You're such a big girl!"

Elise smiled and nodded. "But I'm not allowed to play with taser guns."

"You played with a taser gun?"

Elise slowly loosened her grip on Ranger's leg. He grinned relieved. He was grateful that Frank was putting himself out there for her. She nodded again. "I wanted to know what it was but I made Uncle Ranger go to sleep."

Frank looked up at Ranger with a raised eyebrow. Ranger shifted. "It was…an unfortunate incident."

Frank laughed loudly and hard. He sat down on the ground. Elise grinned at Frank and crept over to him slowly. He tickled her as she got closer. With a delighted shriek of laughter, she ran behind Ranger's legs and peered around them at Frank. Then she crept forward again. Frank reached out and tickled her. She laughed and ran behind Ranger. The routine kept up for several minutes until the door opened and Stephanie walked in with her mother and grandmother.

Seeing Elise running around with her father and her fiancé brought some relief to Stephanie as she smiled at the little girl.

"Elise, do you want to come into the backyard with me?" Grandma Mazur asked. "We have some broccoli that needs planting."

"Mother!" Helen whispered. "You're supposed to be encouraging her!"

"I am!"

"To eat it!"

"Semantics."

Elise followed Grandma Mazur timidly as Helen walked behind them shaking her head. Frank stood and motioned for his daughter and Ranger to follow him into the living room. When they were all seated he looked at Stephanie. "I hear John Tresdale died with a smile on his face."

The shock on his daughter's face was evident. Frank chuckled. "Surprised I know the man?"

"How do you…?"

"He was still serving in the military when I joined. He was a good man. I enjoyed having his company. He was very fond of his daughter. The pride on his face whenever he talked about her was overwhelming. I didn't understand it until I had daughters." Frank smiled in remembrance. "His wife was British, that's why you found him there. He was devastated when he lost her. The devastation was even greater when his daughter passed. John stayed in England to be close to both of them.

"I knew you were with him." Frank continued. "He called me himself to tell me that Brett had attacked you. I was furious and was set to get on a plane, but…well, sometimes the soldier inside never dies." He looked toward Ranger, who nodded in agreement. He chuckled. "I felt like I was in boot camp when he barked at me. I haven't said 'yes, sir; no sir' to anyone in years. He promised to call me weekly with updates to let me know how you were doing."

"Daddy, I…"

"You're a survivor, pumpkin." Frank interrupted. "I know that. Even through the overprotective father ready to kill the bastard who hurt my baby I knew that. It was tough to sit there knowing you were over there. When John told me you asked him to have you trained…well, it was shocking, but I knew he'd do it.

"I don't know if you know this, but he had some of your training videoed. I have a couple DVDs of them. He sent them to me to show me your progression. You're my little girl, but I can't tell you how proud I was to see you take someone RJ's size down." Tears brimmed in his eyes. Stephanie sniffled and got up to hug her father. He held her tightly before letting her return to the couch beside Ranger. "I'm assuming the lack of contact recently had to do with Brett."

"Yes, sir." Ranger nodded.

"Has he been neutralized?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, about Elise." Frank listened attentively as Stephanie explained the legalities of Elise's situation. "You've done good, pumpkin. I'm proud of you."

"Daddy…" Stephanie ducked her head as a blush came to her cheeks.

"And judging by the ring on your left hand I'm assuming you're going to be making an honest woman out of my daughter soon?" Frank said looking at Ranger intently.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Let's go get that old battleaxe away from Elise before she starts teaching her things six year olds should never know."

…

The day of the wedding arrived and Stephanie's estate swarmed with people. Julie was running around with Elise near the river. They had taken to each other and were practically peas in a pod, despite the age difference. Rachel and Ron had flown up. Rachel was currently with Stephanie helping her get into her wedding gown. Ron was keeping an eye on the girls, warning them to stay away from the water.

The last several months had gone by fast. The Plums and Manosos got along better than Ranger and Stephanie had anticipated. Both of them found themselves fidgeting nervously when they found their grandmothers talking in hushed whispers. That had prompted a talk of flying to Vegas and eloping, but neither wanted to deal with the repercussions of that.

The wedding was taking place outside with a terrace serving as an altar near the river. The guests were sitting down. Ranger was shifting nervously at the altar. He had never been so damned nervous in his life.

"Relax, boss," Tank came up and clapped him on the back. "It's not like we're going to war."

"Shit." Ranger muttered. "I've never been nervous going to war."

"Damn. Good thing you're finally marrying the girl!" Tank laughed and took his seat with the rest of the men.

Elise came running up to Ranger and launched herself into his arms. "Uncle Ranger, since you're marrying Mommy, does it make you my Daddy?"

"It sure does, Munchkin!" He tweaked her nose affectionately. Especially since the paperwork for the adoption had gone through without a hitch. Ranger had shown the paperwork to Stephanie a couple days ago. She had cried with joy and made love to him for the whole night, exhausting both of them before morning.

Julie hugged her dad and said, "See, Elise! We're sisters!"

Rachel came up to them, "Come on you two, let's get seated so they can get married." She kissed Ranger on the cheek. "Congratulations, Carlos."

He grinned like an idiot when the music started up and he saw Frank walking Stephanie down the isle to him. His heart almost burst at the sight of her in a body clinging white gown, holding a bouquet of lilies. When Frank gave her hand to his, he brought her close and kissed her.

"Ahem." The priest chided with a chuckle.

"Couldn't resist." Ranger grinned. He looked back at Stephanie.

Their eyes remained locked on each other as they recited their vows. Their rings were exchanged. When the priest announced he could kiss his bride, Ranger wasted no time pulling her to him and kissing her senseless. When he pulled back he caught a glimpse of something in her hair. There were little bat barrettes in her hair.

"Babe." He chuckled.

Stephanie winked at him. "Only fitting since I'm marrying Batman."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Manoso." The priest said loudly. Cheering and applause surrounded them. Ranger hugged Stephanie close and kissed her senseless. Elise ran up to them and found herself encased safely in their arms.

Life was good, they realized, but they knew it was only going to get more interesting.


End file.
